Scholarly Work - Psychology
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/3455
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Item Perceived discrimination, political efficacy, and political participation in American Indian adults(Frontiers Media SA, 2024-03) Wood, Zachary J.; John-Henderson, Neha A.Introduction: Psychological factors linked to political participation are largely understudied in American Indians. Prior work notes relatively low levels of participation compared to other racial and ethnic groups and suggests that identification with being American Indian is linked to overall levels of civic engagement in part through perceptions of group discrimination. Methods: In the current work, in a sample of 727 American Indian adults, we created two groups: Group 1 (N = 398) reported perceived discrimination related to race, and Group 2 (N = 329) reported perceived discrimination not related to race or ethnicity. We investigated the relationships between individual experiences of everyday discrimination related to race, levels of political efficacy, and political participation (Group 1), and individual experiences of everyday discrimination not related to race or ethnicity, political efficacy, and political participation (Group 2). Results: We found that greater experiences of everyday discrimination related to race was associated with higher levels of political participation through increased levels of internal and collective efficacy. In contrast, greater experiences of everyday discrimination related to race was associated with higher levels of political participation through lower external political efficacy. For Group 2, we found that greater experiences of everyday discrimination not related to race or ethnicity was not directly associated with political participation, but mediation analyses revealed a relationship with lower levels of political participation through decreased internal and collective efficacy. The indirect effect through external political efficacy was not significant. Discussion: Given low levels of American Indian political participation, political efficacy could be a target for interventions aiming to increase participation in the political system.Item Association of racism and substance use treatment with belief in the myth of an American Indian/Alaska Native biological vulnerability to alcohol problems(American Psychological Association, 2023-06) Gonzalez, Vivian M.; Skewes, Monica C.Objectives: Belief in an American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) specific biological vulnerability (BV) to alcohol problems is associated with worse alcohol outcomes among AIANs. Despite a notable lack of evidence that biogenetic factors play a greater role in the development of alcohol problems among AIANs than other groups, many people still believe this myth. Consistent with theory and evidence that greater experiences with discrimination leads to the internalization of stereotypes and oppression, we hypothesized that greater perceived racial discrimination (racism) would be associated with greater BV belief, but that having a stronger ethnic identity would weaken this association. We also examined whether previous substance use treatment as well as participation in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) or Narcotics Anonymous (NA) was associated with BV belief. Method: Participants were 198 reservation-dwelling AI adults with a substance use problem who completed a survey as part of a larger community-based participatory study. Results: A multiple regression analysis revealed that greater systemic racism was associated with greater belief in a BV; this association was not moderated by ethnic identity. Greater interpersonal racism was also associated with greater BV belief—but only among those low in ethnic identity. A regression analysis revealed that previous treatment, AA, and NA participation were not associated with BV belief. Conclusions: Greater systemic and interpersonal racism were associated with belief in a BV, and greater ethnic identity buffered the association between interpersonal racism and BV belief. This suggests that both combatting racism and fostering positive ethnic identity may help to lessen BV belief. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)