American Indian/Alaska Native Students' Use of a University Student Support Office

Abstract

American Indian/Alaska Native college students responded to two surveys: one assessing their overall psychological status; the other, their current commitment to the traditions they learned as children. Students described their psychological status in reliable, yet diverse ways: displaced and lost; comfortable and naturally embedded; sick, pessimistic, and lonely; purposeful; self-directed; invisible; optimistic; and, instrumental. In their commitment to cultural traditions, students described themselves as emigrated, adrift, and/or alienated. Self-directed students reported using a student-support office less, as did students reporting higher grades. Students describing themselves as adrift used the office more. Not using the office were two worrisome types: one alienated and in poor health; the other, wishing to blend in with others. These results were interpreted in the larger context of university culture, and a unidimensional model of assimilation versus a bi-cultural model of adaptation.

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