Measuring indigenous household resilience to global environmental changes: Psychometrics and face validity scale...

Area of Science:

• Social and Behavioral Health
• Indigenous Studies
• Environmental Health

Background:

• Developed the Indigenous Household Resilience Scale (IHRS) for a tribal community facing environmental threats.
• IHRS measures subjective household-level resilience crucial for disaster response and land loss decisions.
• Addresses the need for resilience measurement at the household level, distinct from individual or community levels.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the factor structure of the Indigenous Household Resilience Scale (IHRS).
• To assess Indigenous people's subjective appraisal of resilience at the household level.
• To identify culturally relevant factors contributing to household resilience in Indigenous communities.

Main Methods:

• Employed a Tribally led participatory sequential mixed-methods approach.
• Collected survey data from 119 tribal citizens on the Gulf Coast.
• Utilized Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) for scale development and validation.

Main Results:

• An 11-item IHRS was developed with three factors: Cultural Continuity, Relational Place-based Worldview, and Community Engagement.
• Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) demonstrated good model fit indices (RMSEA = 0.05, CFI = 0.94, SRMR = 0.06).
• The scale exhibited acceptable internal consistency (ω = 0.80) and moderate to strong inter-factor correlations (0.62–0.71).

Conclusions:

• Provides preliminary evidence for measuring household resilience in Indigenous communities.
• Contributes to Indigenous scholarship by offering a culturally sensitive measurement tool.
• Relevant for practitioners and researchers supporting Indigenous peoples facing environmental challenges.