Measuring Environmental Distress in Indigenous Communities: An Exploratory Factor Analysis

Background and Purpose. In disaster social work, there are evidence-based interventions to address acute-onset delineated events. However, in Indigenous communities the impacts of disasters are compounded by chronic and ongoing environmental changes (“slow disasters”). Emerging empirical evidence suggests that global environmental changes pose the latest threat to Indigenous Peoples’ well-being and mental health. As such, it is imperative to ensure that scales measuring environmental distress (including impacts of both acute and slow disasters) are a reliable and valid reflection of how environmental changes are experienced by Indigenous populations. The purpose of this study is to validate an adaptation of the Environmental Distress Scale for future use with Indigenous and vulnerable populations.

Methods: This community-engaged study uses interviewer-administered surveys (n=160) through non-probability sampling strategies. The scale consists of self-reported items of observing and experiencing past environmental changes in their community. All participants were enrolled tribal citizens and earned income from subsistence activities. Exposure to environmental changes was measured through proximity (based on participants' observations and experiences) of environmental changes in their parish (county) and participants' estimates of how this exposure threatened their livelihood and wellbeing. The PI utilized a community advisory committee to guide the entire research project and had IRB approval from the PI’s university and the tribal nation.

Results: Exploratory factor analysis was used to assess the structure of the scales described above. Exposure due to threat revealed an uninterpretable factor structure. Likely moderating factors included connection to land, which revealed two factors explaining 48% of the variance. Factor analysis of environmental distress showed two factors, with no item loading uniquely onto the second factor; forcing a one-factor solution showed all items except one loading acceptably.

Conclusions and Implications: The surprising and difficult to interpret results of the exploratory factor analysis—specifically, that several scales did not load as originally designed—may be an artifact of the data, including general low variance and sample size. However, the results may also be due to the fact that the scales themselves are not designed for use with this unique population, and may suggest the need for development of culturally appropriate scales. Further research on the structures of these scales is needed to assess the underlying dimensions that are stable across groups. The study has implications for the exposure pathway model in public health and the Indigenist [sic] Stress Coping Model in social work. The study also has implications for the Environmental Justice framework for measuring inequities arising from global environmental change issues, and for understanding who is affected by environmental degradation caused by anthropogenic activities.