Abstract
One of many ways that Native American (NA) families demonstrate resilience is by parenting children in some of the most adverse contexts in U.S. society. We use the framework of historical oppression, resilience, and transcendence (FHORT) in a critical ethnography to qualitatively explore the parenting philosophies and practices that NAs use to protect children from the risks of an oppressive context. Data were drawn from 436 members of two Southeastern NA tribes. A team-based critical ethnographic data analysis approach was used to analyze these findings, revealing the following themes: (a) “Your Kids Come First”: Prioritizing Children’s Needs; (b) “They Should Enjoy their Childhood”: Sheltering Children from Family Stressors; (c) “I Have to Watch Them Closely”: Closely Monitoring Children; and, (d) “There’s No Drinking at My House”: Preventing Children’s Exposure to Substance Abuse. Results indicate that NA parents adopt child-centric mindsets and use a number of positive practices to protect their children from the potentially harmful environments created through historical oppression.
Highlights
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One of many ways that Native American (NA) families demonstrate resilience is by parenting children in some of the most adverse contexts in U.S. society.
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Using the framework of historical oppression, resilience, and transcendence (FHORT) as a strengths-based lens, this research sought to understand how NAs describe parenting philosophies and practices.
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Despite experiencing historical oppression, NA families continue to demonstrate resilience and optimum parenting strategies.
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NA parenting strategies included prioritizing children’s needs, protecting children from family stressors, closely monitoring children, and preventing children from substance abuse exposure.
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This study fills an important gap in the literature on NA parenting philosophies and practices, helping clinicians and researchers’ understand the social ecologies and psychological adaptations of NA parents, and the strategies they use to protect children from environmental risks.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the dedicated work and participation of the tribes and research assistants over the years who have contributed to this work.
Funding
This work was supported by the Fahs-Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation Faculty Grant Program [grant number #552745]; The Silberman Fund Faculty Grant Program [grant #552781]; the Newcomb College Institute Faculty Grant at Tulane University; University Senate Committee on Research Grant Program at Tulane University; the Global South Research Grant through the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at Tulane University; The Center for Public Service at Tulane University; Office of Research Bridge Funding Program support at Tulane University; and the Carol Lavin Bernick Research Grant at Tulane University. This work was also supported, in part, by Award K12HD043451 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (Krousel-Wood-PI; Catherine McKinley (Formerly Burnette). Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH). Scholar); and by U54 GM104940 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health, which funds the Louisiana Clinical and Translational Science Center. Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01AA028201. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the Tulane Human Research Protection Office (FWA00002055), on study 2018-1372.
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McKinley, C.E., Lilly, J., Liddell, J.L. et al. “I Have to Watch Them Closely”: Native American Parenting Practice and Philosophies. J Child Fam Stud 30, 2952–2965 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-02116-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-02116-w