Cultural Continuity as a Hedge against Suicide in Canada's First Nations
This research report examines self-continuity and its role as a protective factor against suicide. First, we review the notions of personal and cultural continuity and their relevance to understanding suicide among First Nations youth. The central theoretical idea developed here is that, because it...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/136346159803500202 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/136346159803500202 |
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crsagepubl:10.1177/136346159803500202 2024-09-30T14:35:02+00:00 Cultural Continuity as a Hedge against Suicide in Canada's First Nations Chandler, Michael J. Lalonde, Christopher 1998 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/136346159803500202 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/136346159803500202 en eng SAGE Publications https://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license Transcultural Psychiatry volume 35, issue 2, page 191-219 ISSN 1363-4615 1461-7471 journal-article 1998 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1177/136346159803500202 2024-09-17T04:40:54Z This research report examines self-continuity and its role as a protective factor against suicide. First, we review the notions of personal and cultural continuity and their relevance to understanding suicide among First Nations youth. The central theoretical idea developed here is that, because it is constitutive of what it means to have or be a self to somehow count oneself as continuous in time, anyone whose identity is undermined by radical personal and cultural change is put at special risk of suicide for the reason that they lose those future commitments that are necessary to guarantee appropriate care and concern for their own well-being. It is for just such reasons that adolescents and young adults - who are living through moments of especially dramatic change - constitute such a high-risk group. This generalized period of increased risk during adolescence can be made even more acute within communities that lack a concomitant sense of cultural continuity which might otherwise support the efforts of young persons to develop more adequate self-continuity-warranting practices. We present data to demonstrate that, while certain indigenous or First Nations groups do in fact suffer dramatically elevated suicide rates, such rates vary widely across British Columbia's nearly 200 aboriginal groups: some communities show rates 800 times the national average, while in others suicide is essentially unknown. Finally, we demonstrate that these variable incidence rates are strongly associated with the degree to which British Columbia's 196 bands are engaged in community practices that are employed as markers of a collective effort to rehabilitate and vouchsafe the cultural continuity of these groups. Communities that have taken active steps to preserve and rehabilitate their own cultures are shown to be those in which youth suicide rates are dramatically lower. Article in Journal/Newspaper First Nations SAGE Publications Transcultural Psychiatry 35 2 191 219 |
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This research report examines self-continuity and its role as a protective factor against suicide. First, we review the notions of personal and cultural continuity and their relevance to understanding suicide among First Nations youth. The central theoretical idea developed here is that, because it is constitutive of what it means to have or be a self to somehow count oneself as continuous in time, anyone whose identity is undermined by radical personal and cultural change is put at special risk of suicide for the reason that they lose those future commitments that are necessary to guarantee appropriate care and concern for their own well-being. It is for just such reasons that adolescents and young adults - who are living through moments of especially dramatic change - constitute such a high-risk group. This generalized period of increased risk during adolescence can be made even more acute within communities that lack a concomitant sense of cultural continuity which might otherwise support the efforts of young persons to develop more adequate self-continuity-warranting practices. We present data to demonstrate that, while certain indigenous or First Nations groups do in fact suffer dramatically elevated suicide rates, such rates vary widely across British Columbia's nearly 200 aboriginal groups: some communities show rates 800 times the national average, while in others suicide is essentially unknown. Finally, we demonstrate that these variable incidence rates are strongly associated with the degree to which British Columbia's 196 bands are engaged in community practices that are employed as markers of a collective effort to rehabilitate and vouchsafe the cultural continuity of these groups. Communities that have taken active steps to preserve and rehabilitate their own cultures are shown to be those in which youth suicide rates are dramatically lower. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Chandler, Michael J. Lalonde, Christopher |
spellingShingle |
Chandler, Michael J. Lalonde, Christopher Cultural Continuity as a Hedge against Suicide in Canada's First Nations |
author_facet |
Chandler, Michael J. Lalonde, Christopher |
author_sort |
Chandler, Michael J. |
title |
Cultural Continuity as a Hedge against Suicide in Canada's First Nations |
title_short |
Cultural Continuity as a Hedge against Suicide in Canada's First Nations |
title_full |
Cultural Continuity as a Hedge against Suicide in Canada's First Nations |
title_fullStr |
Cultural Continuity as a Hedge against Suicide in Canada's First Nations |
title_full_unstemmed |
Cultural Continuity as a Hedge against Suicide in Canada's First Nations |
title_sort |
cultural continuity as a hedge against suicide in canada's first nations |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
1998 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/136346159803500202 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/136346159803500202 |
genre |
First Nations |
genre_facet |
First Nations |
op_source |
Transcultural Psychiatry volume 35, issue 2, page 191-219 ISSN 1363-4615 1461-7471 |
op_rights |
https://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1177/136346159803500202 |
container_title |
Transcultural Psychiatry |
container_volume |
35 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
191 |
op_container_end_page |
219 |
_version_ |
1811638434365702144 |