Marianne Lau

Researchers shed light on the experiences of caregivers in Nunavut's family service system

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:22:13 +0000

Researchers shed light on the experiences of caregivers in Nunavut's family service system

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 11/14/2024 - 13:22

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Researchers at OISE and the Umingmak Centre have released a report that provides insights into the experiences of caregivers of children involved in Family Services in Iqaluit, Nunavut (photo by Saffron Blaze)

Marianne Lau

Topic

Breaking Research

Nunavut

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Research & Innovation

Subheadline

Nunavut's Umingmak Centre partnered with the Critical Health and Social Action Lab at OISE to better understand the needs of caregivers and enhance child advocacy in the territory

Researchers at the Umingmak Centre, a child advocacy centre in Nunavut, and the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) have released a study that identifies systemic challenges in Nunavut’s child welfare system – and recommends strategies to strengthen caregiver support.

Available in Inuktitut and English, the study is one of the first to directly engage caregivers in Nunavut and emphasizes the importance of understanding of Inuit culture. It found that difficulties in information sharing, resource insecurities, caregiver exploitation and institutional harm are critical issues impacting caregivers’ experiences within Family Services.

The study noted that respondents talked about these challenges differently depending on their backgrounds, including race and socioeconomic status. Unlike their settler counterparts, few Inuit caregivers said they felt burnt out or expressed a need for psychological supports – a phenomenon researchers attributed to a profound and deeply personal sense of exhaustion that has cut across generations.

The report’s authors say the findings underscore a critical need for significant reforms in child welfare, including culturally safe support mechanisms for caregivers following disclosures of child maltreatment and abuse.

“Improving caregiver relationships with services could lead to more community members offering to become caregivers, reducing the number of children leaving the territory into the foster care system,” says study co-lead Romani Makkik, a senior researcher at the Umingmak Centre who is Inuk.

The researchers also highlight the importance of respectful engagement with Inuit communities and the equitable provision of resources that acknowledge and address historical and ongoing systemic injustices.

“Families thrive when they receive meaningful information in a culturally safe, timely, and respectful manner," says Jeffrey Ansloos, an associate professor of Indigenous health and social policy at OISE who is Cree and English, and a citizen of Fisher River Cree Nation. “Achieving this requires a fundamental shift in power dynamics and a focus on relational accountability in service delivery, leadership, and research.

“While much work remains to improve child advocacy in Nunavut, Inuit leadership and strong support for Inuit families must be central. This is why Umingmak’s work is so important.”

Caregivers involved in Family Services have long faced unique challenges and a lack of support while navigating child protection processes in Nunavut. For Inuit caregivers, this is exacerbated by the experience of intergenerational trauma, anti-Inuit racism, and the complex history of Family Services and law enforcement complicity in settler colonization across Inuit Nunangat (the Inuit homeland).

In response, the Umingmak Centre opened in Iqaluit in 2019 to provide trauma-informed, culturally safe care for children and families involved in Family Services due to abuse. A critical gap soon emerged: while caregivers sought services for children, they rarely sought support for themselves, despite the distress that child welfare processes may cause – especially for those facing intergenerational trauma, racism or a lack of cultural safety.

To better understand the needs of caregivers and enhance child advocacy, the Umingmak Centre partnered with the Critical Health and Social Action Lab (CHSA Lab) at OISE, an Indigenous-led research centre led by Ansloos that focuses on advancing health justice through community partnerships.

Between October 2022 and July 2023, the research team conducted 30 interviews with Inuit and settler caregivers who had interacted with the Umingmak Centre, as well as Inuit and settler service providers.

Challenging power dynamics in research

One challenging aspect of the project was ensuring the researchers did not replicate the institutional harms they were studying through their own methods, says Cara Samuel, a doctoral candidate at OISE who acted as project co-ordinator for the study.

The team used a collaborative story analysis method for interpreting the interviews. Guided by the principles of Unikkaaqatigiinniq (storytelling) and Iqqaumaqatigiinniq (all knowledge coming into one), the team analyzed interviews in their entirety to preserve the integrity of each individual’s story.

“Often, how we approach research inadvertently reinforces inequitable power dynamics that prioritize Western or Southern knowledge,” says Samuel. “We wanted to elevate Inuit Qauijimajatuqangit (Inuit knowledge) and cultural resources in our research paradigm and centre lived experience.”

Community leadership and partnership

The CHSA Lab’s emphasis on community partnership ensured genuine collaboration and shared decision-making at every stage of the project.

“We were partners, which means equity in leadership and shared responsibilities for the work and its outcomes,” says Samuel.

“Research is only powerful when led by the community it serves, and we were fortunate to work with dedicated partners in Nunavut committed to justice for Inuit families,” adds Ansloos, who is the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Studies in Health, Suicide Studies, and Environmental Justice. “Our team worked hard to engage a wide range of people, but Umingmak's research leadership, Romani Makkik, and her long-standing relationships and trusted work in the community made our deeper engagement with Inuit caregivers possible.”

Makkik says that the report will play a crucial role in improving Umingmak’s services and shaping future programs – and that the Umingmak Centre hopes to strengthen its partnerships with government services and community organizations to improve services for children and caregivers across Nunavut more broadly.

Critical Health and Social Action Lab aims to advance Indigenous health justice

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 18:40:30 +0000

Critical Health and Social Action Lab aims to advance Indigenous health justice

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 02/07/2024 - 13:40

Cutline

Founded by Associate Professor Jeffrey Ansloos, the Critical Health and Social Action Lab is engaged in a vast array of research projects that are community-based and directed by the communities themselves (photo by Christopher Katsarov Luna)

Topic

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Subheadline

“We engage in social action research that is led, shaped and designed by the priorities of Indigenous community partners”

For Jeffrey Ansloos, advancing Indigenous health justice means placing communities at the forefront of social action research.

A citizen of Fisher River Cree Nation, Ansloos is the founder of the Critical Health and Social Action Lab at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE).

The lab comprises more than 30 researchers – from graduate students to community researchers and international collaborators – who are making strides in mental health research and suicide prevention.

“We engage in social action research that is led, shaped and designed by the priorities of Indigenous community partners,” says Ansloos, an associate professor in OISE’s department of applied psychology and human development who is a tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Critical Studies in Indigenous Health and Social Action on Suicide. “Additionally, we approach health issues through a critical lens that considers the impact of the cultural, social, political, economic and environmental determinants of health – and [look] to act on them in ways that build on the strengths of communities.”

The lab’s array of research projects is vast. They range from investigations into the mental health impacts of environmental changes on Indigenous youth to the effects of income transfers and Housing First initiatives on suicide prevention. Researchers also explore cultural and land-based life promotion and wellness initiatives with children, teens, families and elders in First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities.

All of the projects share a community-driven approach to collaboration, where communities take substantive leadership.

It’s an approach that Ansloos says is critical.

“I believe that research, programs and practices should be directed by the communities themselves,” he says. “They possess the most pertinent, innovative and significant ideas and visions, and have a keen understanding of where the most impactful contributions can be made."

A lab with wings

A workspace designed for collaboration, the lab opened last summer and features a large co-working space that doubles as a community event venue and classroom – and a multimedia studio that is used for podcasting, conducting research and group therapy.

As part of its opening, the lab acquired a collection of mobile technology – including satellite phones, drones and podcast kits – that is available to researchers and partnering Indigenous communities. Ansloos says the equipment was selected to encourage innovative research practices such as art-based and digital storytelling, while emphasizing ease-of-use to promote accessibility.

“In this way, the lab is not only a beautiful space to work from, but it also feels like something with wings that you can take with you wherever the need arises,” he says.

The lab – which receives support from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, �鶹ֱ��app and the Ontario Ministry of Innovation – is currently working on a project that involves Indigenous youth using drones to view and record the impact of environmental changes on the land from an aerial perspective.

In Cree language and culture, Kisik Aski (the sky world) represents the perspective of ancestors, Ansloos explains, and using video technology in the sky can help young people adopt a broader perspective – like the view from sky world – to make connections between what is changing on the land and the health of their communities.

“It can also engage youth in cultural practices that are aimed at enhancing the health of the land, which is increasingly understood as a protective factor for mental health and suicide prevention.”

“I believe that research, programs, and practices should be directed by the communities themselves,” says Ansloos (photo by Christopher Katsarov Luna)

An innovation incubator

Ansloos’s goal is to establish the lab as an innovation incubator that helps increase the number of Indigenous psychologists, health leaders and educators across the country who can lead high-quality community-based research that draws on a diverse range of methods.

To that end, Ansloos aims to cultivate an environment where students not only contribute to health justice and life promotion research, but also experience those concepts personally.

“The people who do the work that we do have a deep sense of what it means to work for justice in the world, so we want to nourish and support their curiosity, creativity, mental health and wellness, and sense of connection," says Ansloos.

Doctoral researcher Shanna Peltier says Ansloos’s approach is key to Indigenous student success.

“Post-secondary institutions can be really intense and unwelcoming for Indigenous students, so [Ansloos] has always encouraged us to make the lab our own,” says Peltier, who is Anishnaabe from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory. “The lab ensures that students have a safe place and a soft place to land when they're at OISE.

“It’s a gathering place for us to be our true selves, and a place of hospitality and warmth.”

Changing the narrative: �鶹ֱ��app researcher explores Black boys' experiences in Canadian classrooms

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 29 Nov 2019 22:22:16 +0000

Changing the narrative: �鶹ֱ��app researcher explores Black boys' experiences in Canadian classrooms

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 11/29/2019 - 17:22

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Ahmed Ali Ilmi is a member of the inaugural cohort of the Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, which provides funding to increase opportunities for scholars from underrepresented groups (photo by Marianne Lau)

Marianne Lau

Topic

Our Community

Alumni

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Research & Innovation

Reflecting on his post-secondary schooling, the experience that stands out most to Ahmed Ali Ilmi is always feeling like “the only Black male.”

“Where are all the Black men in higher education?” was a question the anti-racist educator and scholar found himself constantly asking. Over the next two years, Ilmi will tackle this question as the first Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE).

The Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program is a recent �鶹ֱ��app initiative that provides funding to increase opportunities for scholars from underrepresented groups – specifically Indigenous and Black researchers. Ilmi is in the first cohort of this three-year pilot program, which was introduced in 2018-19. The program, which will announce its second cohort in early 2020, helps resarchers like Ilmi grow their scholarly profiles, undertake academic work at �鶹ֱ��app and strengthen the research environment at the university with diverse perspectives.

�鶹ֱ��app researcher works with Indigenous communities to bring their traditional calendar systems online

davidlee1 — Fri, 27 Sep 2019 15:35:08 +0000

�鶹ֱ��app researcher works with Indigenous communities to bring their traditional calendar systems online

davidlee1 Fri, 09/27/2019 - 11:35

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"Ultimately, I believe that digital technology can help contribute to Indigenous resurgence," says �鶹ֱ��app's Jennifer Wemigwans (photo by Marianne Lau)

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Research & Innovation

Seven years ago, Jennifer Wemigwans received a call from Victor Masayesva Jr., a highly regarded Hopi Knowledge Keeper and artist, inviting her to a gathering of Indigenous Timekeepers from South and North America.

Wemigwans, an assistant professor in the department of leadership, higher and adult education in the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto, was taken aback.

Highly respected in their communities, Timekeepers are Indigenous Elders or Knowledge Keepers who carry sacred teachings from their communities’ traditional calendar systems – a gift she did not hold. Was this a mix-up?

It turns out the Hopi leader had an important request for her.

Masayesva Jr. was calling on behalf of 40 Timekeepers from across North and South America who wanted, for the first time in centuries, to begin publicly sharing knowledge from each of their calendars, said Wemigwans. Specifically, they wanted to share their calendars online and they knew that Wemigwans, an expert in translating Indigenous knowledge to new media platforms, would be able to help.

Followed by Indigenous communities prior to colonization, traditional calendars represent the world views of the nations from which they originate and are seen as an invaluable source of Indigenous traditional knowledge and ways of being. When Indigenous cultural practices were outlawed during colonization, many of these calendars were hidden away by Timekeepers who have been waiting for the right time to bring them back into the open.

In sharing the calendars online, the Timekeepers wanted to work with someone who not only understood new media technologies but also the complexity and responsibility involved in digitally reproducing sacred traditional teachings, said Wemigwans. It is an expertise that few possess, but one that Wemigwans has spent her career developing.

The Timekeepers hoped to produce something similar in impact to Four Directions Teachings, an Indigenous educational website site that Wemigwans produced in 2006 while pursuing her PhD at OISE. The project is of particular significance because it is the first educational website to feature digitized versions of Indigenous teachings shared by Elders and Knowledge Keepers in Canada.

Understanding the importance of sharing and preserving traditional Indigenous knowledge, Wemigwans immediately agreed to the collaboration, and this past summer, the Timekeepers Project officially kicked off. Alongside her research partners Mindahi Bastida-Muñoz and Geraldine Patrick Encina of the Centre for Earth Ethics, Wemigwans spent July and August meeting with Timekeepers in Central America to receive teachings from their respective calendars.

By the end of this year, she will have met with Timekeepers from 10 communities across Guatemala (Achi, Kiche, Tzutujil), Mexico (Ñahñu-Otomi, Yucatec), Canada (Cree, Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee) and the United States (Hopi).

From there, Wemigwans and her team will review their interviews with each Timekeeper, analyze the teachings, pull out key themes and, in close collaboration with each Elder, develop synthesized versions of the teachings for an interactive educational website that will launch in 2021.

This first iteration of the website will feature teachings from three selected calendars. The remaining calendars will be brought onto the site in a future phase of the project.

Marianne Lau spoke with Wemigwans to learn more about the project and transferring traditional Indigenous knowledge online.

Why do the Timekeepers want to create this online resource?

Since colonization, Timekeepers have been protecting their calendar knowledge and waiting for the right time to bring it back into the open. With the end of the latest Mayan calendar cycle in May 2013, many Timekeepers in South and North America feel that time is now. For them, the start of the new cycle marks the beginning of a new dawn of truth, recovery, reconciliation and investment in Indigenous ways of knowing and being. By sharing their traditional calendars online, the Timekeepers hope to facilitate a return to traditional Indigenous ways of living as well as the recovery and fortification of Indigenous calendar knowledge across Turtle Island.

There’s also a sense of urgency that’s driving this project. The Timekeepers feel that the knowledge in their calendars can play a role in responding to climate change. Indigenous calendar systems contain the original instructions for living on territories across Turtle Island, including foundational knowledge about diverse lands and the articulation of responsibilities and stewardship processes for those lands. The Timekeepers hope to help communities return to this knowledge and begin living in ways that can heal and mitigate some of the effects of climate change – and, in addition, educate non-Indigenous people on how to live with the land.

What will the final website look like to its users?

This is a hard question to answer because a lot of it will be determined by the content, which we are currently gathering. However, it will take the form of an online documentary that, like Four Directions Teachings, will be highly interactive and dynamic. Our goal is to develop a narrative and an interface that respectfully captures key themes and reflects the knowledge of the Timekeepers in ways that are culturally ethical and responsible.

With respect to interface design, the knowledge on the site will be presented through audio narrations and robust graphics that will visually reflect Indigenous pedagogical approaches, and will be available in both English and Spanish in order to facilitate knowledge sharing between Timekeepers and Indigenous communities in North and South America.

You’ve mentioned that this project will draw heavily from your work on Four Directions Teachings. What is Four Directions Teachings and how is it different from other Indigenous education websites?

Four Directions Teachings is an online Indigenous education resource that I produced in 2006 which features sacred teachings shared directly from Elders in North America, from the Blackfoot, Cree, Mohawk, Mi’kmaq and Ojibwe Nations.

The website is different in that most Indigenous online education resources are made up of interpretations of Indigenous knowledge that have not been verified by Elders or Knowledge Keepers – those who carry their community’s teachings. As such, many of these sites run the risk of inaccuracies and misrepresentation.

In contrast, all of the teachings featured on Four Directions Teachings were gifted to the project by Elders through their community’s protocols, and the representations of the teachings were developed in collaboration with them. In addition, we took care to ensure that Indigenous cultural protocols and ethics were being adhered to in every phase of the project.

You coined the term ‘digital bundle’ to refer to websites like Four Directions Teachings. Tell us more about this concept.

In Indigenous cultures, “community knowledge bundles” are collections of sacred items or knowledge held by a person with care and ceremony. Digital bundles, then, are places on the internet where sacred knowledge is represented, and naming them as such elevates these sites because Indigenous communities understand that knowledge bundles carry the protocols and responsibilities that come with such a designation.

In my book, A Digital Bundle: Protecting and Promoting Indigenous Knowledge Online, I draw a distinction around what a digital bundle is, as well as the processes, ethics, methodologies and responsibilities involved in creating one. In doing so, I hope to help others broaden their understanding of Indigenous practices online.

What do you think will be your biggest challenge in creating this website?

The biggest challenge will be ensuring that the entire process of creating the online documentary respects each community’s cultural protocols. Indigenous protocols inform us of the responsibilities around a community’s knowledge – for example, how the knowledge should be transferred, how to maintain the integrity of the knowledge, and what can or cannot be shared publicly. Each community will have its own protocols for sharing Indigenous calendar knowledge and I will have to be mindful of, and responsible for, those protocols in ways that respect every single community that I am working with.

As an academic and cultural transmedia producer working in this area, it is a tremendous gift and honour to be invited to partake in and ethically share Indigenous community knowledge with a wide audience. Being honoured in this way means I must learn the protocols and be mindful of my accountability to the diverse communities that have shared knowledge with me.

How did you become interested in digitizing traditional Indigenous knowledge?

It was an idea that came to me in the early 2000s when I was working as an adult literacy educator for Indigenous organizations in Toronto. During my training, one of the first things Elders taught me was that the most important thing we could offer Indigenous learners was an understanding of traditional Indigenous knowledge.

This made me feel really challenged. I thought, ‘Then you need to be in the classroom, because you’re the Elder. You’re the one who carries sacred knowledge. I’m just an instructor.’ Of course, I knew this wasn’t possible – Elders and Knowledge Keepers already face multiple responsibilities and demands from their own communities. So, my fellow instructors and I began having conversations around what it would be like to build a culturally sensitive pedagogical resource online that could help Indigenous educators like ourselves introduce and share aspects of traditional Indigenous knowledge with students.

Around that time, I was also starting to think about how the internet could be used to lead to greater empowerment for Indigenous Peoples. I thought that the flexible ways in which the internet can be explored was well suited to adult learners who want to gain knowledge at their own pace. And because the internet can present information in both visual and audio formats, I felt like it was a good medium for helping Indigenous people experiencing learning issues related to literacy, perceptions of learning and learning styles.

These experiences eventually led to Four Directions Teachings. When the website was finally launched in 2006, I received many letters from Indigenous communities across Canada saying they wanted to see more resources like it. That’s when I thought, “Yes. This is the work I need to be doing.”

What impact do you hope your work will have?

Indigenous communities everywhere are talking about representing their Knowledges online but aren’t sure what it might look like. I hope my work contributes to that conversation so we can see more digital bundles come into being. Ultimately, I believe that digital technology can help contribute to Indigenous resurgence, and while digital bundles can never replace face-to-face time spent with Elders and Knowledge Keepers, they can help provide a really good introduction to traditional teachings and a safe space for investigation, exploration and dialogue.

Over 200 �鶹ֱ��app researchers to take part in massive education conference taking place in Toronto

noreen.rasbach — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 15:47:44 +0000

Over 200 �鶹ֱ��app researchers to take part in massive education conference taking place in Toronto

noreen.rasbach Thu, 04/04/2019 - 11:47

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More than 14,000 people will descend on Toronto for the American Educational Research Association annual meeting, a conference about education research (photo by Michael DiPaul)

Topic

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Research & Innovation

Toronto is playing host to the American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meeting, the largest gathering of scholars in the field of education research.

The five-day conference, which begins Friday, showcases groundbreaking education research and innovative studies in a variety of areas, from elementary through to post-secondary education.

More than 14,000 participants are expected to be in attendance, including researchers, policy-makers, practitioners and students. More than 200 scholars from the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) will be among them, exploring ideas that will shape tomorrow’s education practices and policies. This will be the largest contingent that OISE has ever brought to the conference.

That it will be held in Toronto makes this year’s event especially meaningful for OISE.

“Having AERA here in Toronto is a wonderful opportunity for scholars around the world to visit our city and learn something about our unique community,” says OISE Dean Glen Jones. “I’m looking forward to seeing our extraordinary faculty and students share their research and represent OISE as the top education institute in Canada.”

The conference provides an important opportunity for scholars to showcase their work and network with colleagues in their field. For many OISE faculty, AERA also offers an unparalleled professional development opportunity for their students. The fact that it is in Toronto this year means that many OISE students will be able to attend.

Since finding out nearly two years ago that the 2019 conference would be held in Toronto, Associate Professor Ann Lopez has been working with her student Desiree Sylvestre to prepare.

“AERA is a wonderful opportunity for students to learn from and engage with world-renowned researchers in a professional capacity that they do not normally get to experience in the classroom,” says Lopez. “Presenting research, attending presentations, and meeting with other scholars allows them to build skills that are crucial to their development as doctoral students.”

Sylvestre, a PhD student in OISE’s department of leadership, higher and adult education, will be presenting her paper on Black parental involvement in Toronto’s urban schools. She’ll also be participating in a panel on anti-oppressive education in Canada as the only student among a group of professors.

“Dr. Lopez has been tremendous in supporting and preparing me for this conference,” Sylvestre says. “It’s a very privileged position to be on a panel with experts in this field and to feel that I am ready enough to take up that space and represent OISE doctoral students at the AERA."

Over the week, OISE is expected to become a hub for international visitors. When they’re not attending AERA sessions, many faculty members will be hosting special meetings, receptions and events in and around OISE.

“This is an opportunity for us to showcase the institute and the world-class research happening within OISE every day,” says Jones.

Associate Professor Carol Campbell will be hosting a meeting for board members of the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI), an organization that brings together researchers, policy-makers and practitioners to share new knowledge and best practices for improving schools and education systems.

“On our board, we have international leaders in educational research, policy and practice – many of whom have connections to OISE,” she says. “Quite a few of our members will be attending AERA, so this is a great opportunity to bring together those who are familiar with OISE, as well as those who have not had a chance to visit our world-renowned institution.”

On the first day of the conference, attendees will have the opportunity to tour the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute for Child Study (EJICS) housed at OISE. Visitors will learn about the missions and activities of the Institute and its unique laboratory school that functions as both an elementary school and teacher education and research centre.

“We want to share the possibilities of combining a teacher education program with a laboratory school and a research centre,” says EJICS Director Rhonda Martinussen. “We hope guests will learn about our history, our approach to education that places the child at the centre, and how research enhances and informs the components of the institute.”

The theme for this year’s conference, “Leveraging Education Research in a ‘Post-Truth’ Era: Multimodal Narratives to Democratize Evidence,” highlights the importance of evidence-based policy-making and practice in education.

In an era where many policy decisions are being driven by personal beliefs and preference, it is essential to continue placing research at the forefront of education decision making, says Jones.

“I think reinforcing the importance of evidence and good scholarship and how they can actually contribute to public policy to better educational practices is a really important conversation to have,” he says. “It’s vital to reiterate that using research and evidence is the best way to inform policy conversations about education reform and change.”

Meet three �鶹ֱ��app scholars who are advancing research and care in adolescent and young adult mental health

noreen.rasbach — Wed, 30 Jan 2019 17:35:01 +0000

Meet three �鶹ֱ��app scholars who are advancing research and care in adolescent and young adult mental health

noreen.rasbach Wed, 01/30/2019 - 12:35

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Assistant Professor Chloe Hamza is working on a project that seeks to understand the unique stressors faced by first-year post-secondary students and how these stressors impact coping behaviours

Topic

Research & Innovation

Undergraduate Students

Researchers at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education are playing a leading role in addressing the unique mental health challenges that young people face in today’s world.

From shedding light on how parents and schools can better support young adults to exploring how social media platforms can support the well-being of Indigenous youth, here are some of the ways OISE experts are making an impact.

Jeffrey Ansloos: Leveraging social media to improve Indigenous mental health and well-being

For some, Twitter is a platform used for entertainment. For others, it can be a vital resource for supporting mental health.

Understanding how social media and communications platforms can help to enhance and promote the well-being of Indigenous Peoples is the focus of a new research project, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and led by Jeffrey Ansloos in partnership with Twitter.

“We’re looking at how Indigenous Peoples are currently engaging in online spaces to do things that are good for their community and for themselves,” he says. “We want to know how we can leverage social media platforms to help Indigenous Peoples to connect to culture, community and relationships to the land.”

For many Indigenous communities, social media offers an important means of connection that’s essential to well-being.

Indigenous people have formed networks on Twitter around Indigenous language revitalization. Through other hashtag-constituted communities, Indigenous Peoples are reconnecting to traditional artistic practices, such as beadwork.

Activities like these that foster connection and a sense of community are vital for promoting Indigenous mental health and well-being, says Ansloos.

“When people engage in this sort of networked activity – sharing patterns and talking about how they source traditional products and resources – these connections support vibrant formations of cultural identity and provide a community for many to reflect on their own healing journeys,” he says. “These practices help people to heal from experiences of racism and cultural alienation, as well as restore their sense of connection to identity – things that have come to really impact Indigenous Peoples’ perception of their mental health.”

With this in mind, Ansloos is looking at how social media platforms can be leveraged to better support the ways in which Indigenous people are currently using them, and how they can be improved so that they can more broadly support mental health needs and the promotion of life.

“In the case of Twitter, we’ve learned that many Indigenous hashtag networks and communities using the platform for language learning are frequently targeted by individuals or groups seeking to spread hateful messages or racist content,” he says. “Now, we can better design practices and make policy recommendations that help to address and mitigate the risks of this content, support the repurposing of this space for connecting Indigenous people across the world to our home communities, and help us to connect to language, identity and culture.”

Ansloos’s passion for mental health is closely tied to his desire to improve the lives of the next generation of Indigenous youth.

“I think it’s important that we act more to make life for Indigenous youth more livable and joyous,” he says. “A deep love for my community and deep concern about the future are two anchoring points for why I do what I do.”

Jeffrey Ansloos is an assistant professor of Indigenous mental health and social policy. He is a member of Fisher River Cree Nation (Ochekwi-Sipi; Treaty 5), and is of mixed Nehiyaw (Cree) and English heritage.

Abby Goldstein: Identifying ways parents can best support the well-being of their live-in young adult child

For the first time in 130 years, more young adults are moving back in with their parents – or never leaving in the first place. In 2016, nearly one-third of Canadians aged 20 to 34 were living with a parent. In the transition to adulthood, many of these young adults are striving to establish their identity as well as career and financial stability. It can be a particularly stressful and difficult period.

Yet, Associate Professor Abby Goldstein believes that parents living with their young adult can play an important role in supporting their child’s mental health and well-being during this time. Finding out how is the focus of her new research, supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Goldstein, who is the Canada Research Chair in the Psychology of Emerging Adulthood, has been collecting data from young adults on their daily interactions with parents to understand how they affect mental health. It turns out these interactions are extremely important.

“We are finding evidence that parents can make a real difference in terms of how they are supporting the day-to-day mental health and well-being of their young adult children,” Goldstein says. “On days when young adults feel listened to or supported by their parents, they are much more likely to report greater well-being on those days than on days where they feel like their parents are criticizing them.”

Goldstein says that down the line she hopes to develop interventions that support parents and young adults in building relationships that facilitate healthy transitions into adulthood.

“I’ve met many parents who are struggling to help their child through this time, and there aren’t many resources out there. I want to provide these parents with practical strategies for fostering healthy communication that meets the developmental needs of their emerging adult child.”

Dr. Abby Goldstein is an associate professor in the department of applied psychology and human development. Her research focuses on risk behaviours in young adulthood, including alcohol use, marijuana use, gambling and dating violence.

Chloe Hamza: Promoting positive long-term mental health outcomes for post-secondary students

Studies have shown that as many as one in four undergraduate students in Canada are experiencing mental health concerns.

The stakes are high. Research shows that three-quarters of lifetime mental disorders first appear between ages 18 to 24, the typical age range of post-secondary students. Left untreated, young adults are at increased risk for academic under-performance and attrition, as well as physical and mental health problems later in life.

“This is a sensitive period of development where mental health trajectories are set or altered in enduring ways,” says Assistant Professor Chloe Hamza. “Prevention, early detection and intervention is critical.”

It’s this desire to improve the long-term mental health and well-being of young adults that drove Hamza, a lifespan developmental psychologist, to dedicate the past decade to studying their mental health.

Right now, she is working on a project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council that seeks to understand the unique stressors faced by first-year post-secondary students and how these stressors impact coping behaviours. Focusing on this demographic is important because for many students, the transition to post-secondary education can be particularly influential on mental health, Hamza says.

“Navigating new roles and responsibilities such as living away from home or managing academic and financial pressures can be very challenging, leading to stress, anxiety, and other overwhelming negative emotions,” Hamza says. "While many cope well, others have more difficulty – turning to harmful coping behaviours like binge drinking, substance use and self-harm.

“If we can understand the processes through which stressors impact coping behaviour, we may be better able to prevent unhealthy coping behaviours and intervene early to promote positive long-term mental health outcomes for post-secondary students.”

Hamza hopes this research project, which began with a survey of first-year undergraduates at the University of Toronto last fall, will help schools develop targeted programming to mitigate stressors as well as support students in developing more effective coping behaviours.

Dr. Chloe Hamza is an assistant professor in the department of applied psychology and human development. Her research program focuses on the development of mental health concerns in adolescence and young adulthood, particularly self-injurious behaviours.

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