Cultural efficacy as a novel component of understanding linkages between culture and mental health in Indigenous communities

Abstract

We used a novel measure of cultural efficacy to examine empirical pathways between enculturation, efficacy, and two wellbeing outcomes. Cultural factors are not consistently linked to better wellbeing in the academic literature despite widespread understanding of these processes in Indigenous communities. Healing pathways is a community-based participatory study with eight reservations/reserves in the upper Midwest and Canada. This study uses data collected in 2017–2018 (n = 453, 58.1% women, mean age = 26.3 years) and structural equation modeling to test the relationships between enculturation, cultural efficacy, and mental health. The direct effect of enculturation on anxiety was positive. The indirect effect of enculturation via cultural efficacy was negatively associated with anxiety and positively associated with positive mental health. Cultural efficacy is an important linking variable through which the protective effects of culture manifest. The complex nature of culture must be met with innovative measures and deep understanding of Indigenous peoples to fully capture the protective role of culture.