“It's in the family circle”: Communication promoting Indigenous family resilience

• Published date: 01 February 2022
• Author: Catherine E. McKinley,Jenn Lilly
• Date: 01 February 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12600

RESEARCH

“It’s in the family circle”: Communication promoting

Indigenous family resilience

Catherine E. McKinley

1

|Jenn Lilly

2

1

Tulane University School of Social Work,

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

2

Fordham School of Social Work, New York,

New York, USA

Correspondence

Catherine E. McKinley, Tulane University

School of Social Work, New Orleans, LA,

USA.

Email: catmckinley@tulane.edu

Funding information

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of

Child Health and Human Development,

Grant/Award Number: K12HD043451; Fahs-

Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation,

Grant/Award Number: 552745; National

Institute of General Medical Sciences, Grant/

Award Number: U54 GM104940; National

Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism,

Grant/Award Number: R01AA028201;

Silberman Fund Faculty Grant Program,

Grant/Award Number: 552781

Abstract

Objective: We use the Framework of Historical Oppres-

sion, Resilience, and Transcendence (FHORT) to investi-

gate the framework’s core concept of family resilience and

related protective and promotive factors that contribute to

greater resilience, namely communication.

Background: Scant research has examined communication

in Indigenous families; yet general research suggests that

family communication is a prominent aspect of family

resilience.

Methods: In this exploratory sequential mixed-methods

study with data from 563 Indigenous participants (n=436

qualitative and n=127 quantitative survey), thematic

reconstructive analysis was used to qualitatively under-

stand participants’experiences of family communication

and quantitatively examine protective factors for family

resilience.

Results: The following themes related to family communi-

cation as a component of family resilience emerged from

qualitative analysis: “It’s in the Family Circle”: Discussing

Problems as a Family with the subtheme: Honesty between

Partners; (b) “Never Bring Adult Business into Kids’

Lives”: Keeping Adult Conversations Private; and

(c) “Trust Us Enough to Come to Us”: Open Communica-

tion between Parents and Children. Regression analysis

indicated that higher community and social support, rela-

tionship quality, and life satisfaction were associated with

greater family resilience.

Conclusions: Positive communication practices are a strong

component of resilience, healthy Indigenous families. Pro-

motive factors at the community (social and community

support), relational (relationship quality), and individual

(life satisfaction) levels positively contribute to Indigenous

family resilience.

Received: 9 September 2020Revised: 26 February 2021Accepted: 23 May 2021

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12600

© 2021 National Council on Family Relations.

108 Family Relations. 2022;71:108–129.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare

Implications: Clinical programs providing practical tools

to foster healthy communication –both about difficult

topics as well as positive topics –are promising avenues to

foster resilience.

KEYWORDS

family communication, family resilience, Native American, social support

INTRODUCTION

Scant research has examined communication in Indigenous families; yet general research sug-

gests that family communication is a prominent aspect of family resilience (Black &

Lobo, 2008). Family resilience enables families’successful coping under duress; a recent review

of family resilience factors identified family communication (i.e., clarity, open emotional

expression, and collaborative problem solving) as one essential tool promoting family resilience

(Black & Lobo, 2008; Walsh, 2016). Family resilience promotes Indigenous health equity

(Burnette, 2018; Burnette & Hefflinger, 2016; Burnette, Renner, & Figley, 2019; Burnette, Roh,

et al., 2019; McKinley, Lesesne, et al., 2020).

Despite heterogeneity and resilience among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN)

people (hereafter referred to as “Indigenous”when combined), colonial historical oppression

has disrupted family structures and impaired health equity among Indigenous peoples across

social, physical, and mental health dimensions (Ka’apu & Burnette, 2019; McKinley, Spencer,

et al., 2020; Walters et al., 2011). Epidemiological data indicate that these populations tend to

suffer profoundly high rates of health disparities in comparison with other populations (McKin-

ley, Spencer, et al., 2020). Several reviews and empirical research indicate that in addition to

chronic health, cancer, and physical health disparities (McKinley, Ka’apu, et al., 2020), depres-

sion, suicide, alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use, and post-traumatic stress disorder tend to be

quite elevated for Indigenous peoples of the United States (AI/ANs and Native Hawaiians)

(Ka’apu & Burnette, 2019). Yet, despite a U.S. Federal Trust Responsibility to provide for their

well-being, Indigenous families continue to face significant disparities and are by and large

underrepresented in mainstream research, which perpetuates an invisibility and contemporary

form of oppression (McKinley, Miller Scarnato, & Sanders, 2020).

Family resilience, or the capacity of families to adapt to adversity threatening its functioning

and viability, is understood to profoundly affect the well-being of individuals, communities,

and whole societies (Masten, 2018). Indeed, research using the focal Framework of Historical

Oppression, Resilience, and Transcendence (FHORT) (Burnette & Figley, 2017) has found that

family resilience was protective against important Indigenous health disparities, including anxi-

ety and depression (Burnette, Renner, & Figley, 2019), alcohol use (McKinley & Miller

Scarnato, 2020), intimate partner violence (IPV) (Burnette, 2018), cancer (Roh et al., 2020),

disaster recovery (McKinley, Miller Scarnato, et al., 2019), and overall wellness (McKinley,

Spencer, et al., 2020). To contextualize these adverse experiences, the FHORT is a critical and

postcolonial framework that introduces historical oppression as a societal-level risk factor,

defined as the perpetual, chronic, and massive forms of historic and contemporary oppression,

that were first imposed through colonization and have been perpetuated through internalization

and continued systemic oppression (Burnette & Figley, 2017). A contribution of the FHORT is

situating problems within their sociostructural and historic causes of historical oppression. His-

toric forms of oppression can include assimilative boarding schools, forced relocation, loss of

land and lives, whereas contemporary forms of historical oppression can include discrimination,

health inequities, and invisibility, among others.

FAMILY COMMUNICATION AND RESILIENCE109