Cultural determinants and resilience and recovery factors associated with trauma among Aboriginal help-seeking clients from an Aboriginal community-controlled counselling service

Abstract

In addition to resilience and resistance, collective and personal experiences of trauma are commonly cited within the context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and other Indigenous First People’s experiences of colonisation. This study investigated whether a range of risk and protective factors, including cultural determinants of social and emotional wellbeing, were associated with posttraumatic stress outcomes among 81 Aboriginal help-seeking clients from an Aboriginal community-controlled counselling service in Melbourne, Australia. The study explored potential relationships between trauma exposure, child removal from natural family, experiences of racism, gender, and trauma symptom severity. The study also investigated whether personal, relationship, community and cultural strengths and determinants of wellbeing, as detailed in the Aboriginal Resilience and Recovery Questionnaire, moderated the relationship between trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress symptom severity. Participants commonly endorsed symptoms of distress consistent with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and cultural idioms of distress as documented in the Aboriginal Australian Version of the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire. Two generations of child removal from one’s natural family, experiences of racism, stressful life events experienced during the past 12 months, being male, and not having access to funds for basic living expenses were all associated with greater trauma symptom severity. Conversely, participants self-reported access to personal, relationship, community and cultural strengths was associated with lower trauma symptom severity. Regression analysis revealed that trauma exposure, stressful life events, access to basic living expenses, and personal, relationship, community, and cultural strengths were all important predictors of posttraumatic stress symptom severity. Participant access to strength and resources that included connections to community and culture, moderated the relationship between trauma exposure and trauma symptom severity.