The Intergenerational Effects of Relocation Policies on Indigenous Families

Author's Abstract, Page 1272:

"This research uses life course perspective concepts of linked lives and historical time and place to examine the multigenerational effects of relocation experiences on Indigenous families. Data were collected from a longitudinal study currently underway on four American Indian reservations in the Northern Midwest and four Canadian First Nation reserves where residents share a common Indigenous cultural heritage. This article includes information from 507 10- to 12-year-old Indigenous youth and their biological mothers who participated in the study. Results of path analysis revealed significant direct and indirect effects whereby grandparent-generation participation in government relocation programs negatively affects not only grandparent generation well-being but also ripples out to affect subsequent generations." (1272).

Theoretical Model, Page 1273-1274:

"The life course perspective offers a way to view individual biographies over time through a series of life transitions and trajectories that are situated and influenced by historical forces, timing of events, and human agency. The perspective emphasizes shared networks, interdependent relationships, and “linked lives,” elucidating the ways that historical events shape lives across generations (Elder, 1998; George, 1999). Two major life course themes, lives in historical times and intergenerational transmission of behaviors (Elder, 1974), together provide a way to conceptualize the etiology of problem behaviors and negative affective states among Indigenous peoples that begin with historical traumas and continue across generations within kinship groups." (1273-1274).