IINII, Harvard Square, One Mifflin Place, Suite 400, Cambridge, MA (2025)

03/04/2020

Culturally Responsive Mental Health Interventions (www.iinii.org)

One research team argues that culturally responsive principles has crossed-over into successful prevention models that connected cultural identity, and self-esteem by braiding traditional culture, parenting/social skill-building, and strengthening family relationships into the intervention (Goodkind et al., 2012). The authors learned that American Indian adolescents benefited from participated in culturally-based mental health interventions that incorporate the development of problem-solving skills, positive intellectual reprogramming, and seeks social supports (Goodkind et al., 2012). The outcomes support the conclusions represented in a study that identified support-seeking coping strategies are related to decreased depression and anxiety symptoms among U.S. adolescents (Wright et al., 2010). Other studies acknowledge the importance of the inherent strengths of tribal communities for Native youth and suggests that future interventions integrate tribal culture and the healing traditions of ancient times (Pavkov et al., 2010).

Hodge, Limb, & Cross (2009) linked colonization to mental health within Indigenous communities and suggested abandoning Western mental health remedies in exchange for healing processes that rely on Indigenous knowledge foundations. Some studies contend that traditional cultural practices that use cultural values to heal intergenerational trauma may help American Indian students reduce suicidal thoughts (Hill 2009; Yurkovich, Hopkins, & Rieke, 2012), and suicidal ideation may be reduced by participating in spiritual activities (Garroutte et al., 2003). The influence of cultural factors, such as a sense of belonging to one’s culture, strong tribal spiritual orientation, and cultural continuity, can be protective factors against su***de among American Indian youth (Pharris, Resnick, & Blum, 1997).

Wexler and colleagues (2016) claim that American Indians suffer from lack of culturally appropriate mental health interventions, and argue for the development of partnerships between scholars and Native communities that permit Indigenous peoples opportunities to draw their own conclusions about what constitutes important societal issues, as well as permitting them to craft remedies that reveal community preferences. Increasing access to culturally responsive interventions, development and implementation of school- and community-level interventions, educating and increasing awareness of su***de, and connecting young people to their culture are all identified in literature (Goldston et al., 2008; Pharris, Resnick, & Blum, 1997; US Department of Health and Human Services, 2010).

IINII uses a revolutionary Design Thinking process to help your school community gain an understanding of one’s sense of self, as well as developing an understanding of students’ and parents’ values; having an understanding of one’s values matters because research has shown that it is linked to better well-being, less stress, and increased confidence in one’s ability to succeed. IINII has extensive experience in building and using an Indigenous research paradigm.

Understanding students’ values can be developed with culturally sustaining practices that reflect a student’s identity and experience. Particularly helpful is focusing efforts on cultural competence and relevance and providing opportunities for students to practice bridging differences between diverse identities in a safe environment. To learn how you can create a dynamic youth-centered environment that honors the unique values of your students and parents, visit our website at www.iinii.org, or contact us at iinii@iinii.org or 1800-507-2502.

02/24/2020

Indigenous Capital Impacts Higher Education (www.iinii.org)

American Indian children are at a distinct disadvantage as they must learn to navigate school systems crafted to subjugate their culture, values, and languages in order to advance to higher education which is even less likely to honor the capital Indigenous students bring to their learning. Scholarly literature indicates that academic accomplishment is more related to cultural capital than aptitude and meeting academic benchmarks (Swartz, 1998). The definition of capital is understood to include both utility and power (Pidgeon, 2008). Bourdieu offered three types of capital (social, cultural, and economic) to explain the structures of the social world (Pidgeon, 2008; Mills, 2008). The offer of cultural capital is especially significant for American Indians who are led to believe that their way of knowing is primeval and their languages are believed inferior to the dominant culture (Battiste, 2009).

American Indians have experienced a multitude of atrocities propagated by the dominant cultures’ desire to maintain a power imbalance that fortifies their world-building desires. Likewise, many Indigenous students have fallen victim to school systems based on a colonial mindset designed to assimilate them through the dominant cultures’ values and experiences, which in turn, begins to set the schema of the habitus to mimic the values that the school seeks to legitimize and transfer willfully (Mills, 2008). One scholar suggests that public education uses cognitive imperialism as a devious method of mental maneuvering to disrepute other people’s values and knowledge in order to substantiate another groups’ knowledge. To be stripped of one’s knowledge and identity is to be separated mentally and spiritually from one’s ancestors. Therefore, decolonization is not merely a political mechanism, but rather a cognitive imperative that allows the spirit and minds of the colonized to be set free. (Battiste, 1998).

Indigenous communities frequently have a very diverse set of questions that outlines the key instructive issue as being essentially around epistemic self-determination that incorporates dialect and culture and the challenges of creating academic approaches from a distinctive epistemological basis (Smith, 2005). One scholar indicates that Indigenous belief systems or habitus are founded on the notion that one must be able to comprehend one’s connection to the world and is rooted in the individual’s geographic origin and the culture of that place (Pidgeon, 2008).

IINII uses a revolutionary Design Thinking process to help your school community gain an understanding of one’s sense of self, as well as developing an understanding of students’ and parents’ values; having an understanding of one’s values matters because research has shown that it is linked to better well-being, less stress, and increased confidence in one’s ability to succeed. IINII has extensive experience in building and using an Indigenous research paradigm.

Understanding students’ values can be developed with culturally sustaining practices that reflect a student’s identity and experience. Particularly helpful is focusing efforts on cultural competence and relevance and providing opportunities for students to practice bridging differences between diverse identities in a safe environment. To learn how you can create a dynamic youth-centered environment that honors the unique values of your students and parents, visit our website at www.iinii.org, or contact us at iinii@iinii.org or 1800-507-2502.

02/20/2020

Cultural Discontinuity Harms Native Youth (www.iinii.org)

Scholars claim that American Indian children experience bullying at significantly higher rates when compared to other youth (Carlyle & Steinman, 2007; Melander, Sittner Hartshorn, & Whitbeck, 2013). Scholars note that as a result of oppression and its ensuing influences on the internalized process of oppression, Indigenous people suffer a wound to their soul. Mistakenly, American Indian caregivers get trapped into believing that their children escape oppression and the insidious effects of internalized oppression—but Native children do suffer the ill effects of internalizing oppression; and as a result of lacking the outlets or processes to overcome the difficulties associated with internalizing oppression they struggle even more than adults resulting in cultural discontinuity (Gonzales, Simard, Baker-Demaray, & Iron Eyes in Davis, 2013). Scholars indicate that cultural discontinuity is “the violence in all forms: lateral violence, sexual violence, physical violence, emotional or character assassination, bullying, intimidating, and so on” (Gonzales, Simard, Baker-Demaray, & Iron Eyes in Davis, p. 46, 2013).

Children that encounter bullying, experience a diminished self-worth (Perren, Ettakal, & Ladd, 2013), damaged self-esteem (McDougall and Vaillancourt, 2015) and oftentimes experience suicidal ideation (Schreier et al., 2009; Gini & Espelage, 2014; Arango, Opperman, Gipson, & King, 2016; Gunn, & Goldstein, 2017). Youth su***de is one of the most daunting crises facing American Indian communities (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013; Wexler et al., 2015), which are often located in rural areas that lack culturally sensitive intervention services (Leavitt et al., 2018).

IINII uses a revolutionary Design Thinking process to help your school community gain an understanding of one’s sense of self, as well as developing an understanding of students’ and parents’ values; having an understanding of one’s values matters because research has shown that it is linked to better well-being, less stress, and increased confidence in one’s ability to succeed. IINII has extensive experience in building and using an Indigenous research paradigm.

Understanding students’ values can be developed with culturally sustaining practices that reflect a student’s identity and experience. Particularly helpful is focusing efforts on cultural competence and relevance and providing opportunities for students to practice bridging differences between diverse identities in a safe environment. To learn how you can create a dynamic youth-centered environment that honors the unique values of your students and parents, visit our website at www.iinii.org, or contact us at iinii@iinii.org or 1800-507-2502.

02/14/2020

Minority Su***de Rates Climb (www.iinii.org)

In the U.S., rates of attempted and completed su***de are highest among Native Americans; White youth traditionally have had higher su***de rates than non-whites, but the gap has been decreasing due to an increase in su***de among African American males. Compared with non-Hispanic youth, Hispanic youth in the U.S. show higher rates of suicidal ideation and attempted su***de, but are not disproportionately represented among su***de completers. Acculturation may play a role in explaining the higher rate of attempted su***de among Hispanic adolescents, particularly young Latinas, although recent evidence suggests that the perceived quality of mother-daughter relations may be more predictive of adolescent su***de attempts.

Joe et al., recently conducted the first nationally representative study on the prevalence and psychiatric correlates of suicidal ideation and su***de attempts among African American and Caribbean black adolescents in the U.S. Consistent with previous studies, data from the National Survey of American Life showed that having a psychiatric disorder, especially an anxiety disorder, and living in the Northeast (compared to the South and West) were strongly associated with attempted su***de and suicidal ideation.

Using data from the Mexican Adolescent Mental Health Survey, Borges and colleagues reported the first representative estimates of the lifetime prevalence of suicidal ideation (11.5%), plan (3.9%), and attempted su***de (3.1%) in 12- to 17-year-olds in metropolitan Mexico City. As in previous studies, the presence of one or more mental disorders was closely linked to su***de ideation, plan, and attempt. Among youth with a history of suicidal ideation, only dysthymia was consistently related to making a su***de plan and attempted su***de.

IINII uses a revolutionary Design Thinking process to help your school community gain an understanding of one’s sense of self, as well as developing an understanding of students’ and parents’ values; having an understanding of one’s values matters because research has shown that it is linked to better well-being, less stress, and increased confidence in one’s ability to succeed. IINII has extensive experience in building and using an Indigenous research paradigm.

Understanding students’ values can be developed with culturally sustaining practices that reflect a student’s identity and experience. Particularly helpful is focusing efforts on cultural competence and relevance and providing opportunities for students to practice bridging differences between diverse identities in a safe environment. To learn how you can create a dynamic youth-centered environment that honors the unique values of your students and parents, visit our website at www.iinii.org, or contact us at iinii@iinii.org or 1800-507-2502.

02/07/2020

Children Learn Bullying Behaviors (www.iinii.org)

Bandura’s (1977) Social Learning Theory posits that people learn from observing the behaviors of others as well as the outcomes of those behaviors. According to this theory, children can acquire aggressive behaviors by observing models (e.g., parents, peers) who engage in similar aggressive acts and are reinforced for this behavior. Bandura, Ross, and Ross (1961) provided initial support for this assumption by demonstrating that children learn and imitate aggressive behaviors they have observed in adult models. Some of the children in the study watched a male or female adult behaving aggressively toward a toy called a Bobo doll. Later on, when these children were allowed to play in a room with a Bobo doll, they began to imitate the aggressive behaviors they had previously observed from the adult model. In general, children who observed the aggressive models engaged in significantly more aggressive behaviors than children who were exposed to a non-aggressive model or no model.

Bandura (1977) asserts that in order for observational learning to be successful four conditions – attention, retention, motor reproduction, and motivation – must be present. First, the observer must pay attention to the model and be able to remember the behavior that was observed. Second, the observer has to be able to replicate the behavior that the model has demonstrated. Lastly, the observer must be motivated to imitate the behavior that has been modeled. Thus, the likelihood that children will imitate bullying behaviors they observe depends on whether they attend to the person’s behaviors, remember the behaviors that are observed, are physically capable of replicating the bullying behaviors and are motivated to engage in the bullying behaviors. Reinforcement, punishment, and self-efficacy play an important role in motivation (Bandura, 1978; Okey, 1992). For example, children are more likely to engage in aggressive behaviors (i.e., bullying) if they result in positive outcomes and/or if they have high self-efficacy for aggressive behaviors and low self-efficacy for alternative coping strategies (Bandura, 1978; Okey, 1992).

IINII uses a revolutionary Design Thinking process to help your school community gain an understanding of one’s sense of self, as well as developing an understanding of students’ and parents’ values; having an understanding of one’s values matters because research has shown that it is linked to better well-being, less stress, and increased confidence in one’s ability to succeed. IINII has extensive experience in building and using an Indigenous research paradigm.

Understanding students’ values can be developed with culturally sustaining practices that reflect a student’s identity and experience. Particularly helpful is focusing efforts on cultural competence and relevance and providing opportunities for students to practice bridging differences between diverse identities in a safe environment. To learn how you can create a dynamic youth-centered environment that honors the unique values of your students and parents, visit our website at www.iinii.org, or contact us at iinii@iinii.org or 1800-507-2502.

02/05/2020

Teacher Relatedness Helps Adolescents (www.iinii.org)

Relatedness is the felt sense of closeness and of being valued by another individual. Relatedness is determined, in part, by the security youth experienced in early caregiver-child relationships, and relatedness predicts the degree to which youth will seek interpersonal connection in later relationships with peers, friends, and teachers (Kuperminc, Blatt, & Leadbeater, 1997). Hagerty et al. (1993) suggest that relatedness is a “functional, behavioral system rooted in early attachment behaviors and patterns” such that “affiliation or exploration are activated only after the attachment behavioral system" (p. 292). Breaks in relatedness, such as through forced separations, undermine connectedness by lessening youths’ willingness to invest time and energy in relationships with others (Richters & Martinez, 1993; Kuperminc et al., 1997). For example, Midgley, Feldlauffer, and Eccles (1989) reported that students who moved from elementary classrooms where they experienced high teacher support to middle school classrooms where they perceived less teacher support showed decreases in their interest in learning. In short, undermined relatedness creates a lapse in connectedness. When teachers do not provide consistent sources of empathy, praise, and attention, as well as a clear, consistent structure, youth will become less involved in school and will become less inclined to establish conventional school-based relationships (van Aken & Asendorpf, 1997).

When relatedness occurs in groups of people or in defined contexts, the result is the experience of belonging. Belonging is of paramount importance to adolescents. The need to belong is defined, not as the need to be the passive recipient of supportive relationships, but as the need for “frequent [positive and pleasing] interaction plus persistent caring” (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Hagerty et al. (1993) describe connectedness to others, as well as to organizations and their activities, as a reciprocation of experienced belonging and relatedness that has, directly or indirectly, primary attachment relationships at its source. How accepted and valued a youth feels by a particular group, shapes how connected—involved and concerned—that youth will be with people and activities in that organization. This is because youth confirm and acknowledge their experience of belonging by becoming connected through increased interaction and caring for other people and places

IINII uses a revolutionary Design Thinking process to help your school community gain an understanding of one’s sense of self, as well as developing an understanding of students’ and parents’ values; having an understanding of one’s values matters because research has shown that it is linked to better well-being, less stress, and increased confidence in one’s ability to succeed. IINII has extensive experience in building and using an Indigenous research paradigm.

Understanding students’ values can be developed with culturally sustaining practices that reflect a student’s identity and experience. Particularly helpful is focusing efforts on cultural competence and relevance and providing opportunities for students to practice bridging differences between diverse identities in a safe environment. To learn how you can create a dynamic youth-centered environment that honors the unique values of your students and parents, visit our website at www.iinii.org, or contact us at iinii@iinii.org or 1800-507-2502.

02/03/2020

The Origins of Adolescent Connectedness (www.iinii.org)

Connectedness has several likely precursors, including attachment to caregivers, relatedness to others, and feelings of belongingness within social groups. Karcher (2004) proposed that connectedness develops in reaction to (a) attachment, (b) interpersonal social support, and (c) group-level experiences of belonging. Defined as active involvement and caring for other people, places, and activities, connectedness is the reciprocation of the support and positive affect that other people, in specific
places, have provided youth, which works to support the youth’s social development. This reciprocal process reveals an opportunity for structuring programs and experiences in schools that aim to promote connectedness.

Connectedness is not a feeling of belonging or relatedness; rather connectedness reflects a continuation and reciprocation of basic attachment and bonding processes into the adolescents’ widening social ecology. Like indicators of attachment, connectedness reflects proximity seeking (i.e., movement towards) and positive affect for people, places, and activities in the adolescent’s life. This is an important distinction. Connection is not a bond that is felt, but is a volitional, active “bonding” with other people, places, and activities. In this way, promoting connectedness in schools does not only mean “helping students feel supported,” but also creating supportive conditions, such as through groupwork, activities, and collaborative learning, which acts to foster connections in the form of action-based, attitude-driven involvement in school.

Connectedness has, as its source, positive relationships and experiences with others, and more specifically, relationships and experiences from which youth garner esteem and competence. Early in life, primary experiences of relatedness with caregivers result in positive attachments with caregivers and provide children with their initial sources of support, esteem, and praise (Ainsworth, 1989; Kohut, 1977). Later, other forms of social support build upon these early experiences, and provide interpersonal relatedness outside the family (e.g., teachers, peers, and friends) and experiences of group belonging beyond the family unit (See Figure 1). These socially supportive interactions result in positive feelings of relatedness and belonging. Youth reciprocate these feelings by “connecting” with others by assigning them positive affect and seeking continued interaction with them (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). This reciprocation is similar to that of plugging in a power cord whereby one actively seeks out the source of connectedness (relatedness and belonging). Connectedness is not synonymous with relatedness and belonging; connectedness is a behavioral and attitudinal response to those feelings.

IINII uses a revolutionary Design Thinking process to help your school community gain an understanding of one’s sense of self, as well as developing an understanding of students’ and parents’ values; having an understanding of one’s values matters because research has shown that it is linked to better well-being, less stress, and increased confidence in one’s ability to succeed. IINII has extensive experience in building and using an Indigenous research paradigm.

Understanding students’ values can be developed with culturally sustaining practices that reflect a student’s identity and experience. Particularly helpful is focusing efforts on cultural competence and relevance and providing opportunities for students to practice bridging differences between diverse identities in a safe environment. To learn how you can create a dynamic youth-centered environment that honors the unique values of your students and parents, visit our website at www.iinii.org, or contact us at iinii@iinii.org or 1800-507-2502.

01/28/2020

Moral Disengagement Harms Children (www.iinii.org)

Children lacking empathy typically have difficulty interpreting visual cues regarding others’ emotions, and also express difficulty relating to others and understanding how others might feel (Bossenmeyer, 2010). Research has shown that some children who bully show little empathy (Bullock, 2002). One study has demonstrated that low levels of empathy have been related to more frequent involvement in bullying (Gini, Albiero, Benelli, & Altoè, 2007). Furthermore, it has been shown that students who bully tend to display less empathic awareness than their peers who do not engage in bullying behaviors (Warden & Mackinnon, 2003).

Some researchers argue that students who bully are actually adept at reading social cues; these students use their ability to engage in perspective-taking to prey on other students (Olweus, 1999). However, a lack of empathy has been found to be common among those who fail to appropriately react when witnessing the distress of others. Watching others in pain appears to serve as a reward for those who bully others, thus suggesting that a lack of empathy leads to inappropriate responses when a student is being victimized (Decety, Michalska, Akitsuki, & Lahey, 2010).

Students generally engage in bullying behaviors because they either have strong needs for power and dominance or find satisfaction in causing injury and suffering to other individuals (Olweus, 1999). An additional characteristic that may set those who bully apart from their peers is moral disengagement; individuals will act aggressively in order to achieve what they perceive as morally right and will subsequently consider any aggressive actions take to obtain such a goal to be justifiable (Alvarez & Bachman, 2008).

Numerous studies have advocated for the role of moral disengagement, especially high levels of moral disengagement, in the development and maintenance of bullying behaviors (Gini, 2006; Gini, Pozzoli, & Hymel, 2013; Hymel, Schonert-Reichel, Bonanno, Vaillancourt, & Rocke Henderson, 2010; Pozzoli, Gini, & Vieno, 2012). In a study looking at the moral emotions experienced by bullies, compared to victims and bystanders (Menesini, Sanchez, Fonzi, Costabile, & Feudo, 2003), results showed that bullies endorsed higher moral disengagement and displayed more egocentric reasoning. Specifically, one form of moral disengagement is indifference, which is expressed by the lack of emotions in response to a harmful behavior towards victimized students (Menesini, Sanchez, Fonzi, Costabile, & Feudo, 2003). This lack of empathetic feelings has been found among many children who bully others, thus strengthening the connection that low levels of empathy appear to be a contributing factor for children’s engagement in bullying behaviors.

IINII uses a revolutionary Design Thinking process to help your school community gain an understanding of one’s sense of self, as well as developing an understanding of students’ and parents’ values; having an understanding of one’s values matters because research has shown that it is linked to better well-being, less stress, and increased confidence in one’s ability to succeed. IINII has extensive experience in building and using an Indigenous research paradigm.

Understanding students’ values can be developed with culturally sustaining practices that reflect a student’s identity and experience. Particularly helpful is focusing efforts on cultural competence and relevance and providing opportunities for students to practice bridging differences between diverse identities in a safe environment. To learn how you can create a dynamic youth-centered environment that honors the unique values of your students and parents, visit our website at www.iinii.org, or contact us at iinii@iinii.org or 1800-507-2502.

01/23/2020

Youth Bullies Lack Empathy (www.iinii.org)

Studies have found that one characteristic that is found among children who bully is a lack of empathy (Bullock, 2002; Gini, Albiero, Benelli, & Altoè, 2007). Empathy is an emotional response that corresponds to the recognition of the current feelings of another person (Kalisch, 1973), and is considered a basic component of emotional intelligence (Elliott, Watson, Goldman, & Greenberg, 2010; Goleman, 1996). Empathy has also been defined as the ability to share and understand another person’s emotional state (Caravita, Di Blasio, & Salmivalli, 2008; Cohen & Strayer, 1996; Eisenberg & Strayer, 1987). This is often confused with other emotional expressions, such as compassion and sympathy, which are actually responses to having an empathic connection to another person (Singer & Klimecki, 2014). Compassion and sympathy are believed to mean having feelings of concern for another person, which is then accompanied by the motivation to help that person (Miller & Eisenberg, 1988; Singer & Klimecki, 2014).

Empathy is a complex phenomenon that requires individuals to use their emotional and their cognitive systems in order to understand someone else, by taking their perspective (Bohart & Greenberg, 1997; Miller & Eisenberg, 1988). Using both affective and cognitive processes is what allows individuals to “step into” the experience of others, thereby allowing for greater connection to others (Fingerhut, 2011). According to Eisenberg and Strayer (1987), empathy is an affective reaction that occurs in response to overt cues (e.g., facial expressions) or indirect cues (e.g., the nature of another person’s situation). Individuals lacking empathy typically have difficulty interpreting visual cues regarding others’ emotions, and also express difficulty relating to others and understanding how others might feel (Bossenmeyer, 2010). Studies have found that children who bully show little empathy (Bullock, 2002; Gini, Albiero, Benelli, & Altoè, 2007). One study has demonstrated that low levels of empathy have been related to more frequent involvement in bullying (Gini, Albiero, Benelli, & Altoè, 2007). Furthermore, it has been shown that students who bully tend to display less empathic awareness than their peers who do not engage in bullying behaviors (Warden & Mackinnon, 2003).

IINII uses a revolutionary Design Thinking process to help your school community gain an understanding of one’s sense of self, as well as developing an understanding of students’ and parents’ values; having an understanding of one’s values matters because research has shown that it is linked to better well-being, less stress, and increased confidence in one’s ability to succeed. IINII has extensive experience in building and using an Indigenous research paradigm.

Understanding students’ values can be developed with culturally sustaining practices that reflect a student’s identity and experience. Particularly helpful is focusing efforts on cultural competence and relevance and providing opportunities for students to practice bridging differences between diverse identities in a safe environment. To learn how you can create a dynamic youth-centered environment that honors the unique values of your students and parents, visit our website at www.iinii.org, or contact us at iinii@iinii.org or 1800-507-2502.

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