Discrimination and substance abuse among American Indian Children| | | 10/5/2012| It is believed that discrimination is harmful to adults. The effects of discrimination affect ones mental and physical health causing them to experience depressive symptoms, low self-esteem and often symptoms of anxiety. There is relatively little known on the effects that discrimination has on early development (Finch, Kolodny, and Vega 2000; Kessler, Mickelson, and Williams 1999; Ren, Amick and Williams 1999).
The social problem that is being investigated in this research experiment is the perceived discrimination and substance abuse among American Indian adolescents. With the relationship between the two being a little unclear, two hypotheses were made. The first hypothesis made was that discrimination results in internalizing symptoms that, in turn, lead to early use of alcohol and drugs (Whitebeck, McMorris, Chen & Stubben, 2001).
The second hypothesis stated that discrimination stress elicits an angry response among American Indian early adolescents which increases the likelihood of delinquent behaviors and substance abuse.
The research method consisted of interviewing 220 children with 120 of those being boys and the other 100 being girls who participated in a baseline survey for a prevention study that was conducted on three American Indian reservations located in the upper Midwest (Whitebeck, McMorris, Chen & Stubben, 2001).
The Term Paper on Use Of American Indian Images In The Boy Scouts And Camp Fire Girls
Use of American Indian Images in the Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls Taking into consideration such organizational movements as the Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls, we may focus our attention on these organizations usage of American Indian images. Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls use American Indian images pretty often in various kinds of activities and specific to the organizations staff. One of the ...
With a few complications occurring, a final sample of 195 children that were all enrolled tribal members and in 5th to 8th grade. In order to recruit their sample group, the researchers took other tribal members advice on how to properly ask a member to participate.
When asked to take the survey 85% of the families completed the survey, 10% of the families refused and 6% could not be located. The adolescents ranged from 9-16 years old with the average boy age at 12. 2 years and the average girls age at 12. 1 years (Whitebeck, McMorris, Chen & Stubben, 2001).
The survey asked the adolescence to answer questions using a number range. A few questions that the researchers asked were the number of drugs one has used in the past 6 months, the amount of alcohol one drinks at a time, and a description of their anger.
After extensive research was conducted and examined, the results showed that even though the respondents were in 5th -8th grade they had already experienced discrimination (Whitebeck, McMorris, Chen & Stubben, 2001).
About half of the adolescents said that they had been insulted just for being an American Indian. However, the basic hypothesis was rejected due to the effects of perceived discrimination and internalizing symptoms not leading to substance abuse among this age group. Girls and younger children were at a higher risk for internalizing symptoms than were boys and older children (Whitebeck, McMorris, Chen & Stubben, 2001).
A solution that I think could be made to resolve or help this situation is holding an awareness event and/or creating a comforting place to go when one feels like they are being discriminated against where there are people available to talk with and guide the adolescents. Hosting awareness event and meetings gets the problem out to the public so that they too can help one another and they can catch potential substance abuse early. This will also help the people that are coping with the effects of discrimination and maybe get them to reach out for help instead of turning to other harmful substances in hopes to “forget” it all. ))) I found this research article to be very interesting in that this idea probably affects many other races as well. Discrimination is always occurring and it seems like there is nothing we can do to stop it. What we can do is make sure that it doesn’t get out of hand and that other delinquent acts aren’t committed has a result of one being discriminated against. With us now knowing that it’s the girls showing more signs of internalization than the boys we can keep a closer eye on that particular adolescence.
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I encourage girls to search within themselves for their deepest values and beliefs. Once they have discovered their own true selves, I encourage them to trust that self as the source of meaning and direction in their lives” Mary Pipher, Ph. D. Clinical psychologist Mary Pipher has brought widespread attention to the loss of true-self, experienced by adolescent girls in her critically acclaimed ...
