Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-ws8qp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T22:02:47.871Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Diversity, Disruption, Continuity: Parenting and Social and Emotional Wellbeing Amongst Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islanders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2012

Fiona Heath
Affiliation:
Mater Private Hospital, Brisbane, Australia
William Bor*
Affiliation:
Mater Private Hospital, Brisbane, Australia
Jenny Thompson
Affiliation:
Mater Private Hospital, Brisbane, Australia
Leonie Cox
Affiliation:
School of Nursing and Midwifery, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, Australia
*
Address for correspondence: Dr William Bor, Mater Hospital, Annerley Rd, South Brisbane QLD 4101, Australia. Email: William.Bor@mater.org.au
Get access

Abstract

This paper reviews the diversity in parenting values and practices amongst Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders. First, issues arising from the historical traumatic disruption of families' attachments are discussed. Then the contribution Indigenous parenting makes to the development of healthy and vulnerable individuals becomes the central focus. Family therapists can draw from a broad understanding of the diversity of parenting values and practices in the context of a strength-based approach.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arthur, B., & Morphy, (Eds.). (2005). Macquarie atlas of Indigenous Australia. Sydney: Macquarie Library.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (2007). Migration 2005–06, no. 3412.0. Canberra, ACT: Commonwealth Government of Australia.Google Scholar
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2008). The health and welfare of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Canberra, ACT: Author & Australian Bureau of Statistics.Google Scholar
Bailey, H. N., Moran, G., Pederson, D. R., & Bento, S. (2007). Understanding the transmission of attachment using variable and relationship centered approaches. Developmental Psychopathology, 19(2), 313343.Google Scholar
Bartrouney, T., & Soriano, G. (2001). Parenting in the Torres Strait Islands (Bua sei boey wagel). Family Matters, 59, 4853.Google Scholar
Beckett, J. (1987). Torres Strait Islanders: Custom and colonisation. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bernier, A., & Meins, E. (2008). A threshold approach to understanding the origins of attachment disorganization. Developmental Psychology, 44(4), 969982.Google Scholar
Bond, C. J. (2005). A culture of ill health: Public health or Aboriginality? Medical Journal of Australia, 183(1), 3941.Google Scholar
Bond, C. J. (2009). Starting at strengths: An Indigenous early years intervention. Medical Journal of Australia, 191(3), 175177.Google Scholar
Brint, S. (2001). Geimeinschaft revisited: A critique and reconstruction of the community concept. Sociological Theory, 19(1), 123.Google Scholar
Broome, R. (2001). Aboriginal Australians (3rd ed.). Sydney: Southwood Press.Google Scholar
Brown, A., & Brown, N. J. (2007). The Northern Territory Intervention: Voices from the centre of the fringe. Medical Journal of Australia, 187(11), 621623.Google Scholar
Collard, D., Crowe, S., Harries, M., & Taylor, C. (1994). The contribution of Aboriginal family values to Australian family life. In Inglis, J. & Rogan, L. (Eds.), Flexible families: New directions for Australian communities (pp. 113122). Leichhardt, NSW: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health (CRCAH), Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, & Department of Families Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (2006). Growing up in the Torres Strait region. Footprints in time (Occasional paper No. 17). Retrieved from http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/about/publicationsarticles/research/occasional/Documents/op17/default.htmGoogle Scholar
Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health (CRCAH), Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, & Department of Families Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (2008). Stories on ‘growing up’ from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the ACT metro/Queanbeyan region. Footprints in time (Occasional paper No. 20). Retrieved from http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/about/publicationsarticles/research/occasional/Documents/op20/default.htmGoogle Scholar
Cox, L. (2000). Freeloadin' for tea, freeloadin' for children, freeloadin' for tribe: Bureaucratic apartheid and the post-colonial condition. (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia).Google Scholar
Cox, L. (2007). Fear trust and Aborigines: The historical experience of state institutions and current encounters in the health system. Health and History, 9(2), 7092.Google Scholar
Cox, L. (2009). Queensland Aborigines, multiple realities and the social sources of suffering: Psychiatry and moral regions of being. Oceania, 79(2), 97120.Google Scholar
Department of Families, Community Services & Indigenous Affairs (FaCSIA). (2006). The ‘growing up’ of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. What we know from work already done. Occasional paper No. 15. Commonwealth of Australia. Retrieved from http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/about/publicationsarticles/research/occasional/Documents/op15/part2_2.htmGoogle Scholar
Fleer, M., & Williams-Kennedy, D. (2002). Building bridges: Literacy development in young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Canberra: Australian Early Childhood Association.Google Scholar
García Coll, C. T., & Pachter, L. (2002). Ethnic and Minority Parenting. In Bornstein, M. H. (Ed.), Handbook of parenting (2nd ed., Vol. 4, pp. 122). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Garvey, D. (2008). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identity in contemporary psychology: Dilemmas, developments, directions. Melbourne: Cengage Learning.Google Scholar
Goldberg, S. (1991). Recent developments in attachment theory and research. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 36(6), 393400.Google Scholar
Grienenberger, J. F., Kelly, K., & Slade, A. (2005). Maternal reflective functioning, mother-infant affective communication, and infant attachment: Exploring the link between mental states and observed caregiving behaviour in the intergenerational transmission of attachment. Attachment and Human Development, 7(3), 299311.Google Scholar
Haebich, A. (2000). Broken circles: Fragmenting Indigenous families 1800–2000. Fremantle, Western Australia: Fremantle Arts Centre Press.Google Scholar
Henderson, G., Robinson, C., Cox, L., Dukes, C., Tsey, K., & Haswell, M. (2007). Social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people within the broader context of the social determinants of health. In Beyond bandaids: exploring the underlying social determinants of Aboriginal Health. Papers from the Social Determinants of Aboriginal Health workshop, Adelaide, July 2004 (pp. 136164). Retrieved from http://www.lowitja.org.au/crcah/beyond-bandaidsGoogle Scholar
HREOC (Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission). (1997). Bringing them home: Report of the National Inquiry Into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children From Their Families. Retrieved from http://www.hreoc.gov.au/social_justice/bth_report/report/ch5.htmlGoogle Scholar
Hunter, E. (1993). Aboriginal health and history: Power and prejudice in remote Australia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Johns, V. (1999). Aboriginal children and play. In Dau, E. (Ed.), Child's play: Revisiting play in early childhood setting. Sydney: McLennan & Petty.Google Scholar
Kolar, V., & Soriano, G. (2000). Parenting in Australian families: A comparative study of Anglo, Vietnamese and Torres Strait Islander parents (Research Report No. 5). Melbourne: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Luthar, S. S., Cicchetti, D., & Becker, B. (2000). The Construct of resilience: A critical evaluation and guidelines for future work. Child Development, 71(3): 543562. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1885202/Google Scholar
Malin, M., Campbell, K., & Agius, L. (1996). Raising children in the Nunga Aboriginal way. Family Matters, 43, 4347.Google Scholar
Nelson, A., & Allison, H. (2000). Values of urban Aboriginal parents: Food before thought. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 47, 2840.Google Scholar
Penman, R. (2006). The ‘growing up’ of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children: A literature review. Canberra: Department of Families, Community Services & Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Affairs.Google Scholar
Prigerson, H. G., Shear, M. K., & Jacobs, S. C. (1999). Consensus criteria for traumatic grief: A preliminary empirical test. British Journal of Psychiatry, 174, 6773.Google Scholar
Reser, J. (1991). Aboriginal mental health: Conflicting cultural perspectives. In Reid, J. and Trompf, P. (Eds.), The health of Aboriginal Australia (pp. 218291). Sydney: Harcourt Brace & Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. (2010). Cultural safety training: Identification of cultural safety training needs. Melbourne: Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.Google Scholar
Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care Inc. (2004). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parenting project executive summary. Retrieved from http://www.snaicc.asn.au/_uploads/rsfil/01814.pdfGoogle Scholar
Steinberg, L., & Silk, J. S. (2002). Parenting adolescents. In Bornstein, M. H. (Ed.) Handbook of parenting (2nd ed., Vol. 1, pp. 103133). New Jersey: Laurence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Swan, P., & Raphael, B. (1995). Ways forward: National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health policy national consultancy report. Available from http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/mental-pubs-w-wayforw-tocGoogle Scholar
van Ijzendoorn, M. H., Schuengel, C. & Bakemans-Kranenburg, M. J. (1999). Disorganized attachment in early childhood: Meta-analysis of precursors, concomitants and sequelae. Development and Psychopathology, 11, 225250.Google Scholar
Walker, R., & Shepherd, C. (2008). Strengthening Aboriginal family functioning: What works and why? Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies.Google Scholar
Warrki Jarrinjaku ACRS Project Team. (2002). Warrki Jarrinjaku Jintangkamanu Purananjaku: Aboriginal child rearing and associated research. Canberra: Department of Family and Community services.Google Scholar
Westwood, B. & Westwood, G. (2010). Aboriginal cultural awareness training: policy v. Accountability — failure in reality. Australian Health Review, 34, 423429.Google Scholar
Yeo, S. S. (2003). Bonding and attachment of Australian Aboriginal children. Child Abuse Review, 12, 292304.Google Scholar
Zubrick, S. R., Dudgeon, P., Gee, G., Glaskin, B., Kelly, K., & Paradies, Y. (2010). Social determinants of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing. In Purdie, N., Dudgeon, P., & Walker, R. (Eds.), Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional mental health wellbeing principles and practice (pp. 7590). Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar