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<p>Suicide research has focused primarily on risk factors at the individual level, overlooking the potential for community-level factors that confer protection from suicide. This study builds on the concept of cultural continuity from the Indigenous suicide prevention literature. It seeks to understand the collective influences shaping individual experiences across time and frames resilience as a culturally situated process that helps individuals to navigate challenges and facilitate positive health behaviors. A collaborative Alaska Native (AN) partnership designed the Protective Community Scale (PCS) to identify mutable community-level protective factors in rural AN communities hypothesized to reduce suicide among youth, who represent the highest risk demographic in this at-risk population. Study objectives were to (a) test the measurement structure of community-level protection from suicide, (b) select best functioning items to define this structure, and (c) test the association of community protection with community-level suicide deaths and attempts. In 65 rural AN communities, 3–5 residents (<i>n</i> = 251) were peer-nominated for their knowledge of local resources and completed the PCS in structured interviews<i>.</i> Findings show community members can reliably assess the theoretically rich, multidimensional community-level protective factor structure of cultural continuity with sufficient precision to establish its inverse association with community-level suicide. Community-level protection emerges as a promising approach for universal suicide prevention in Indigenous contexts that can guide multi-level strategies that expand beyond individual-level, tertiary prevention to focus on the continuity of cultural processes as resources to build protection. These findings point the field toward consideration of cultural continuity and community protection as key factors for Indigenous suicide prevention.</p>

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Indigenous Community-Level Protective Factors in the Prevention of Suicide: Enlarging a Definition of Cultural Continuity in Rural Alaska Native Communities

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年2月4日

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  • James Allen,
  • Lisa Wexler,
  • Charlene Aqpik Apok,
  • Jessica Black,
  • James Ay’aqulluk Chaliak,
  • Katie Cueva,
  • Carol Hollingsworth,
  • Diane McEachern,
  • Evon Taa’ąįį Peter,
  • Jessica Saniguq Ullrich,
  • Andrew Grogan-Kaylor,
  • KyungSook Lee,
  • Carlotta Ching Ting Fok,
  • Matthew Berman,
  • Suzanne Rataj,
  • Sherri Anderson,
  • Barbara Amarok,
  • Billy Charles,
  • Leanna Isaac,
  • Kirstian Haugen,
  • Adeline Kameroff,
  • Roberta R Moto,
  • Katheryn Nenneman,
  • Georgianna Ningeulook,
  • Gloria Simeon,
  • Julie Raymond Boix,
  • Stacy Rasmus

摘要

Suicide research has focused primarily on risk factors at the individual level, overlooking the potential for community-level factors that confer protection from suicide. This study builds on the concept of cultural continuity from the Indigenous suicide prevention literature. It seeks to understand the collective influences shaping individual experiences across time and frames resilience as a culturally situated process that helps individuals to navigate challenges and facilitate positive health behaviors. A collaborative Alaska Native (AN) partnership designed the Protective Community Scale (PCS) to identify mutable community-level protective factors in rural AN communities hypothesized to reduce suicide among youth, who represent the highest risk demographic in this at-risk population. Study objectives were to (a) test the measurement structure of community-level protection from suicide, (b) select best functioning items to define this structure, and (c) test the association of community protection with community-level suicide deaths and attempts. In 65 rural AN communities, 3–5 residents (n = 251) were peer-nominated for their knowledge of local resources and completed the PCS in structured interviews. Findings show community members can reliably assess the theoretically rich, multidimensional community-level protective factor structure of cultural continuity with sufficient precision to establish its inverse association with community-level suicide. Community-level protection emerges as a promising approach for universal suicide prevention in Indigenous contexts that can guide multi-level strategies that expand beyond individual-level, tertiary prevention to focus on the continuity of cultural processes as resources to build protection. These findings point the field toward consideration of cultural continuity and community protection as key factors for Indigenous suicide prevention.