Suicide Among Aboriginal People in Canada - Institut universitaire ...

Chapter 3Single-parent families are more common in Aboriginal communities than in the general population. In2001, about 35 per cent of Aboriginal children living on reserves lived with only one parent, comparedto 17 per cent of non-Aboriginal children (Statistics Canada, 2003). However, the impact of singleparenthood depends on local social and cultural factors that determine the degree of support by extendedfamily, relatives, elders, and other members of the community. In some Aboriginal communities—notablythe Inuit—adoption may be extremely common and less stigmatized, and so may not be associated withthe same increased risk for suicide seen in the total population.Studies among American Plains Indians found that youths who died by suicide were much more likelyto have had a change of caretaker during their childhood or adolescence (May and Dizmang, 1974;Resnick and Dizmang, 1971). As discussed in detail in Chapter 4 of this report, Aboriginal populationshave experienced a high frequency of separations due to education in boarding schools and prolongedhospitalization out of their communities for tuberculosis and other chronic illness (Dickason, 1992;Kleinfeld and Bloom, 1977; Manson et al., 1989). The residential school system exposed Aboriginalchildren to prolonged separations from family and kin, physical and sexual abuse, and active suppressionof their language and cultural identity (Coleman, 1993; Haig-Brown, 1990; Knockwood, 1992;Lomawaima, 1993).Childhood Physical and Sexual AbuseClinical and population studies support an association between a childhood history of physical and sexualabuse and later suicidal ideation and behaviour (Cleary, 2000; Dieserud et al., 2002; Evans, Hawton, andRodham, 2005a; Santa Mina and Gallop, 1998). An association of childhood physical abuse with suicidehas been found for adolescents in both case-control (Brent et al., 1999) and prospective longitudinal studies(Brown et al., 1999; Johnson et al., 2002). Most research on the association of childhood sexual abusewith suicidality has involved clinical studies, which introduce biases both because of the limitations ofretrospective recall and because clinical samples do not include people with a history of abuse who have notsought mental health services (Rogers, 2003). The most recent studies in the general population, however,have found a significant relationship between childhood sexual abuse and later suicidality (Fergusson et al.,2000; Molnar et al., 2001; Goldsmith et al., 2002; Evans, Hawton, and Rodham, 2005a). Although sexualabuse is more common among females, it may have an especially strong association with suicidality for males(Evans, Middleton, and Gunnel, 2004). Abused children are more likely than non-abused children to belater victims of abuse or to become sexual aggressors themselves. Thus, there seems to be a transgenerationalpattern of repetition of sexual abuse.Factors associated with risk of sexual abuse for a child include the family’s socio-economic status, changein family composition, difficulty in communication and attachment between the child and parent, parents’criminal behaviour, substance/alcohol abuse, and psychological disorders. Aboriginal youth in Canada aremore likely than non-Aboriginal youth to witness family violence and to be subjected to physical and sexualabuse (Fischler, 1985; Lujan et al., 1989; MacMillan et al., 1996). Approximately one-half of Aboriginalchildren witnessed family violence, and the majority were female victims; 57% of Aboriginal women reportedthat their children had witnessed the violence compared to 46% of non-Aboriginal women (Trainor andMihorean, 2001). The 1997 First Nations and Inuit Regional Longitudinal Health Survey in Ontario foundthat 59 per cent of First Nation adults had experienced physical abuse during their childhood and 34 percent had suffered sexual abuse. The same survey found rates of sexual abuse among youth—14 per cent forboys and 28 per cent for girls (First Nations Centre, 2004). Urban Aboriginal people also experience high43