Reconceptualizing native women's health: an "indigenist" stress-coping model.
This commentary presents an "indigenist" model of Native women's health, a stress-coping paradigm that situates Native women's health within the larger context of their status as a colonized people. The model is grounded in empirical evidence that traumas such as the "soul wound" of historical and contemporary discrimination among Native women influence health and mental health outcomes. The preliminary model also incorporates cultural resilience, including as moderators identity, enculturation, spiritual coping, and traditional healing practices. Current epidemiological data on Native women's general health and mental health are reconsidered within the framework of this model.
Walters
Karina L
KL
School of Social Work, University of Washington, 4101 15th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98105-6299, USA. kw5@u.washington.edu
Simoni
Jane M
JM
D000069:Acculturation; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D018595:Colonialism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008913:Minority Groups / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009017:Morbidity; D009026:Mortality; D011287:Prejudice; D011634:Public Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011822:Race Relations; D012933:Social Identification; D029181:Spirituality; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology; D016387:Women's Health