INVOLVING PARENTS IN A COMMUNITY-BASED, CULTURALLY-GROUNDED MENTAL HEALTH INTERVENTION FOR AMERICAN INDIAN YOUTH: PARENT PERSPECTIVES, CHALLENGES, AND RESULTS.

An important predictor of youth well-being and resilience is the presence of nurturing adults in a youth's life. Parents are ideally situated to fulfill this role but often face challenges and stressors that impede their ability to provide adequate support and guidance. American Indian parents may also be affected by intergenerational transmission of trauma and loss of traditional parenting practices, as a result of forced boarding school and/or relocation. Members of a community-university partnership sought to interrupt cycles of violence and poor mental health of youth through a culturally-grounded intervention for youth and their parents that focused on healing historical trauma, strengthening positive parenting practices and social skills, reconnecting to traditional cultural knowledge, and improving parent-child relationships/communication. This article describes parental involvement and its challenges and provides mixed-method results for 10 parents related to enculturation, parenting practices, parent-child communication, family cohesion, historical loss and associated symptoms, and community involvement.