Addressing Violence Towards Youth and Young Adults in Indigenous Communities: A Tribal-Research Partnership, United States, 2022-2023 (ICPSR 39178)

Version Date: Dec 2, 2025

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Principal Investigator(s):
Bridget Diamond-Welch, University of South Dakota; Anna E. Kosloski, University of Colorado Colorado Springs; Carmen O'Leary, Native Women's Society of the Great Plains

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39178.v1

Version V1

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Summary

Through a new tribal program and researcher partnership, this study aimed to answer the questions: what does violence look like to Native youth, and how do Native youth experience resilience and how can that resilience be strengthened? Through the use of two theoretical frameworks, Galtung's Basic Human Needs and the Socio-Ecological model, these questions were explored.

The work from this project was threefold, first this was a capacity-building grant. Therefore, the central goal was to establish a new tribal program partnership between Native Women's Society of the Great Plains (NWS), led by researchers from the University of South Dakota (USD) and researchers from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS). Together they worked to identify additional members who would be part of the study design, implementation, analysis, and dissemination. Project partners ranged in age and geographic location. Participants from NWS, USD, and UCCS worked collaboratively to meet the additional goals of this project.

The second goal was to explore an issue of concern to NWS across the Great Plains Region using the community based participatory research approach. From previous discussions between the researchers and NWS team, vulnerability to violence begins in youth, and therefore was of particular interest to Native people of the Great Plains Region. Thus, USD, NSW, and UCCS developed and applied for the Tribal-Research Capacity-Building Grant together.

The third goal was to identify a priority matter from the data collected on this project and collaborate on a subsequent grant application.

To meet these three overarching goals, five objectives were mapped out for this project. These included the following:

  • Objective 1: Develop a communication strategy among the partnership agency members to advance capacity and enable meaningful conversations about difficult topics.
  • Objective 2: Develop an answer to the question "what is violence?" for this population.
  • Objective 3: To understand how these different sources of violence interact with the human needs identified under objective 2 to create patterned vulnerabilities (or susceptibilities).
  • Objective 4: To address how resilience works within the developed model.
  • Objective 5: To extend capacity building in the broader Indigenous communities of the Great Plains through bidirectional communication and information sharing.

    • Citation

    Diamond-Welch, Bridget, Kosloski, Anna E., and O’Leary, Carmen. Addressing Violence Towards Youth and Young Adults in Indigenous Communities: A Tribal-Research Partnership, United States, 2022-2023. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-12-02. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39178.v1

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    Funding

    United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (15PNIJ-21-GG-02808-RESS)

    Subject Terms

    Geographic Coverage

    Smallest Geographic Unit

    State

    Restrictions

    Access to these data is restricted. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement, specify the reasons for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.

    Distributor(s)

    Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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    Time Period(s)

    2022-01-01 -- 2024-07-01

    Date of Collection

    2022-12-13 -- 2023-04-22
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    Study Purpose

    The purpose of the study was to examine the factors that make adolescents and young adults susceptible to violence in Indigenous communities. Also to explore the factors that can increase resilience.

    Study Design

    The study utilized two theoretical frameworks, Galtung's Basic Human Needs and a modified version of Bronfenbrenner The Socio-Ecological model. To provide a brief overview, Galtung explained that violence is more than direct interpersonal harm but that additionally, violence could be structural and cultural. That is to say, it could be woven into the policies of society and normalized to appear as legitimate or not even recognized as violence. In this way, violence could extend to other inequities such as poverty, racism, etc. Given this broader understanding of violence, this study also explored the Socio-Ecological Model which identifies spheres of influence which can affect an individual's behavior. For the purpose of this study, those spheres of influence included intrapersonal (individual), interpersonal/primary groups (such a family and peers), organizational (workplaces, schools, religious institutions), community (neighborhoods, community organizations), policy (federal, state, local, tribal), and cultural ideology (traditions, values, and beliefs). Through the frameworks, researchers developed a protocol for discussion (similar to a focus group) at their three workshops.

    Two in-person workshops and one virtual workshop were held between December 2022-April 2023. Workshops took nearly a full day and were broken into two sessions, one on violence and one on resilience. Notes were taken by two members of The Partnership in each session. They were then compared and merged, personal information and geographic location was redacted for confidentiality. Additionally, participants completed a short questionnaire for demographic data at each workshop location.

    The workshop notes were coded by two Native Women's Society (NWS) consultants and two researchers using thematic analysis. The codes were based on the framework for the Basic Human Needs and Socio-Ecological Models. Codes were compared for inter-rater reliability and grouped based on the thematic category. Results were then compiled by multiple members of the research team for two academic manuscripts.

    Sample

    Flyers were shared by the Native Women's Society (NWS) to recruit participants interested in discussing Native youth violence and resilience in the Great Plains. Researchers also recruited online using social media posts on Facebook and Instagram. The inclusion criteria were set as individuals who were 18 years of age or older, self-identified as Native American or Indigenous, and given the qualitative nature of the research, English speaking.

    Time Method

    Longitudinal

    Universe

    Native Americans, 18 years or older, who speak English, concerned about Native youth violence

    Unit(s) of Observation

    Individual

    Data Type(s)

    Mode of Data Collection

    Description of Variables

    The study is for restricted release with two qualitative datasets. Demographic Survey Data (DS1) included 14 variables with close ended string responses and Native Americans Interview Data (DS2) was a qualitative data of observer notes with direct quotes from participants.

    DS1 contained demographics such as sex, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, educational status and employment status of the participants.

    Response Rates

    54 people participated in talking circles over three workshops.

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    Original Release Date

    2025-12-02

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    Notes

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