This study explored risk and protective factors associated
with resilience among participants of the Cedar Project, a cohort study
involving young Indigenous peoples who use illicit drugs in three cities in
British Columbia, Canada. We utilized the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale to
measure resilience, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire to measure childhood
maltreatment, and the Symptom-Checklist 90-Revised to measure psychological
distress among study participants. Multivariate linear mixed effects models
(LME) estimated the effect of study variables on mean change in resilience
scores between 2011-2012.
Among 191 participants, 92 % had experienced any form
of childhood maltreatment, 48 % had a parent who attended residential
school, and 71 % had been in foster care. The overall mean resilience
score was 62.04, with no differences between the young men and women (p = 0.871). Adjusted factors
associated with higher mean resilience scores included having grown up in a
family that often/always lived by traditional culture (B = 7.70, p = 0.004)
and had often/always spoken their traditional language at home (B = 10.52, p < 0.001). Currently knowing how to speak a
traditional language (B = 13.06, p = 0.001),
currently often or always living by traditional culture (B = 6.50, p = 0.025),
and having recently sought drug/alcohol treatment (B = 4.84, p = 0.036)
were also significantly associated with higher mean resilience scores.
Adjusted factors associated with diminished mean resilience scores included
severe childhood emotional neglect (B = −13.34, p = 0.001), smoking crack daily (B = −5.42, p = 0.044),
having been sexual assaulted (B = −14.42, p = 0.041), and blackout drinking (B = −6.19, p = 0.027).
Young people in this study have faced multiple complex
challenges to their strength. However, cultural foundations continue to
function as buffers that protect young Indigenous people from severe health
outcomes, including vulnerability to HIV and HCV infection...
Research suggests that young
Indigenous people living with unaddressed historical and lifetime traumas are
more likely to use illicit drugs as a coping mechanism [9]. Further, young urban Indigenous people who use drugs in
Canada experience high levels of injection drug use [10], residential transience [11], high risk sex [12], sex work [13], and sexual violence [14]. These cumulative traumas have also manifest as increased
HIV and hepatitis C (HCV) vulnerability[15]–[19]. For example, extant literature has demonstrated that young
Indigenous people who use drugs and have experienced childhood sexual abuse are
twice as likely to be living with HIV infection [9], and those who had at least one parent who attended
residential school are twice as likely to be living with HCV infection [20]. Taken together, these vulnerabilities have contributed
substantially to the overrepresentation of Indigenous people among those living
with HIV and HCV infection in Canada. Recent 2011 data indicates that
Indigenous people constituted an estimated 12.2 % of all people in Canada
newly diagnosed with HIV, which corresponded to an HIV incidence rate that was
3.5 times higher than among non-Indigenous people [21]. Likewise, between 2002 and 2008, the estimated incidence
of HCV infection was 4.7 fold higher among Indigenous people than
non-Indigenous people [19]...
By: Margo E. Pearce12, Kate A. Jongbloed12, Chris G. Richardson12, Earl W. Henderson3,Sherri D. Pooyak4, Eugenia Oviedo-Joekes12, Wunuxtsin M. Christian5, Martin T. Schechter12, Patricia M. Spittal12* and For the Cedar Project
Partnership
1School of Population and Public Health,
University of British Columbia, Columbia, Canada
2Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome
Sciences, 588-1081 Burrard St., Vancouver, V6Z1Y6, BC, Canada
3Cree, Métis; University of Northern British
Columbia, Columbia, Canada
4Cree; University of Victoria; Canadian
Aboriginal AIDS Network, Victoria, Canada
5Splatsin te Secwepemc First Nation,
Columbia, Canada
