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“A Dad Can Get the Money and the Mom Stays at Home”: Patriarchal Gender Role Attitudes, Intimate Partner Violence, Historical Oppression, and Resilience Among Indigenous Peoples

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Abstract

Research has shown that gender role attitudes influence a number of health-related outcomes, including intimate partner violence (IPV). Yet the gender role attitudes of Indigenous peoples – a population that experiences persistent health and violence disparities – have received scant scholarly attention. Using the Framework of Historical Oppression, Resilience, and Transcendence (FHORT), the purpose of this mixed methodology was to qualitatively explore U.S. Indigenous peoples’ gender role attitudes and quantitatively examine how key social determinants of health, including IPV perpetration, historical oppression, and resilience, relate to gender role attitudes. This research integrates qualitative and quantitative data from two Southeastern tribes with a total of 563 unique data sources. Regression analysis revealed male sex and IPV victimization were associated with higher patriarchal gender role attitudes, while historical oppression and resilience were associated with lower patriarchal gender role attitudes. Resilience was also associated with lower “victim blaming.” Ethnographic team-based data analysis methods revealed qualitative themes of patriarchal gender role attitudes and gendered socialization processes. This work highlights how key aspects of the FHORT might explain Indigenous peoples’ patriarchal gender role attitudes, suggesting the need to redress historical oppression and patriarchal roles through decolonization.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the dedicated work and participation of the tribe who contributed to this work.

Funding

This work was supported by the Fahs-Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation Faculty Grant Program [grant number #552745]; The Silberman Fund Faculty Grant Program [grant #552781]; the Newcomb College Institute Faculty Grant at Tulane University; University Senate Committee on Research Grant Program at Tulane University; the Global South Research Grant through the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at Tulane University; The Center for Public Service at Tulane University; Office of Research Bridge Funding Program support at Tulane University; and the Carol Lavin Bernick Research Grant at Tulane University. This work was also supported, in part, by Award K12HD043451 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health -Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH); and by U54 GM104940 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health, which funds the Louisiana Clinical and Translational Science Center. Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01AA028201). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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Correspondence to Catherine E. McKinley.

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IRB approval through Tulane University (527,491-OTH) as well as tribal approval were attained prior to study activities for the article: “A Dad Can Get the Money and the Mom Stays at Home”: Patriarchal Gender Role Attitudes, Intimate Partner Violence, Historical Oppression, and Resilience Among Indigenous Peoples.

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McKinley, C.E., Lilly, J.M., Knipp, H. et al. “A Dad Can Get the Money and the Mom Stays at Home”: Patriarchal Gender Role Attitudes, Intimate Partner Violence, Historical Oppression, and Resilience Among Indigenous Peoples. Sex Roles 85, 499–514 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-021-01232-7

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