Cultural Resilience of Rural and Remote Ojibwe Families

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application responds to announcement PA-00-082, Research on Mental Disorders in Rural and Frontier Populations. It seeks five years of funding for a longitudinal diagnostic study of 350 Ojibwe children aged ten through twelve years (4th - 6th grades) and their parents who live on two rural American Indian reservations in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin and three more remote, less economically developed Canadian reserves. This application draws from more than six years of work with Ojibwe Bands in the upper Midwest through NIDA funded basic (DA 13580) and prevention (DA 10049) research programs. The purpose of the proposed research is to identify precursors of mental disorder and problematic externalizing and internalizing symptoms and to evaluate specific cultural risks and protective factors identified in previous research. A promising model will be investigated that proposes that cultural protective factors (e.g., traditional practices, traditional spirituality, and Ojibwe identity) operate over and above other resiliency factors for Ojibwe children. In addition, specific cultural risks (e.g., discrimination and negative life events associated with reservation life) function to increase risk to this population even when other risk factors are considered. Risks and protective factors will be evaluated in terms of remote location (e.g., the Canadian reserves) vs. the more assimilated and economically; developed U.S. reservations. Using computer assisted personal interviewing, the children will be screened (DISC 4.0) for Conduct Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Substance Abuse Disorder, Major Depression, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Both child and parent reports will be used for both diagnostic and symptom reports. Parents will be screened for mental disorder (Substance Abuse Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Major Depression, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder) at year 1. In addition, to examining a model of cultural risk and protective factors, we will also investigate formal and informal help seeking among Ojibwe people in rural and remote communities. This application is extremely cost effective in that if funded it will extend an ongoing NIDA funded longitudinal diagnostic study (DA 13580) of 450 Ojibwe families for a total of 800 American Indian and First Nation families on six reservations and three remote Canadian reserves. It will allow more sophisticated investigation of cultural effects by increasing both the size and diversity of the sample and add new dimensions (e.g. variance in traditional knowledge and service utilization) to the study.