What’s love got to do with it? “Love” and alcohol use among U.S. Indigenous peoples: Aligning research with real-world experiences

ABSTRACT

This research examines how Indigenous families report experiences of love (a component of family resilience) and its association with the urgent health disparity of alcohol abuse. This exploratory mixed-methods study first identified emergent results from qualitative data (n = 436), which were then explored with follow-up quantitative data (n = 127) from a sample of Indigenous families in two Southeastern tribes. Love was a highly salient qualitative theme and component of family resilience. Quantitative results revealed cross-generational changes in family resilience, which were negatively associated with alcohol use. Current families may be transcending the effects of historical oppression by expressing love and family resilience.

KEYWORDS:

• Alcohol
• drug
• substance abuse
• native American population
• family services

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the dedicated work and participation of the tribes who contributed to this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fahs-Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation Faculty Grant Program [grant number #552745]; The Silberman Fund Faculty Grant Program [grant #552781]; the Newcomb College Institute Faculty Grant at Tulane University, University Senate Committee on Research Grant Program at Tulane University, the Global South Research Grant through the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at Tulane University, The Center for Public Service at Tulane University, and the Carol Lavin Bernick Research Grant at Tulane University. This work was supported, in part, by Award K12HD043451 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (Krousel-Wood-PI; Catherine McKinley (Formerly Burnette) Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) Scholar). Supported in part by U54 GM104940 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health, which funds the Louisiana Clinical and Translational Science Center. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.