Learning from the past: young Indigenous people's accounts of blood-borne viral and sexually transmitted infections as resilience narratives.
The Indigenous Resilience Project is an Australian community-based participatory research project using qualitative methods to explore young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's views of blood-borne viral and sexually transmitted infections (BBV/STI) affecting their communities. In this paper we present an analysis of narratives from young people who had a previous BBV/STI diagnosis to explore how they actively negotiate the experience of BBV/STI infection to construct a classic resilience narrative. We examine two overarching themes: first, the context of infection and diagnosis, including ignorance of STI/BBV prior to infection/diagnosis and, second, turning points and transformations in the form of insights, behaviours, roles and agency. Responding to critical writing on resilience theory, we argue that providing situated accounts of adversity from the perspectives of young Indigenous people prioritises their subjective understandings and challenges normative definitions of resilience.
National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, University of New South Wales, New South Wales, Australia. jmooneysomers@nchecr.unsw.edu.au
Julie
J
Mooney-Somers
Anna
A
Olsen
Wani
W
Erick
Robert
R
Scott
Angie
A
Akee
John
J
Kaldor
Lisa
L
Maher
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D017848:Blood-Borne Pathogens; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D033262:Narration; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011793:Queensland / Q000453:epidemiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D012749:Sexually Transmitted Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D055815:Young Adult