Health Consequences of Child Removal Among Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Sex Workers: Considering Trajectories, Mechanisms, and Resiliencies

• In Event: 3129 - Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 9. Marginalization in Pregnancy and Motherhood

Abstract

In high income countries, the child protection system can be a highly consequential institution for mothers who are sex workers, yet scant attention has been paid to its role in the health of this population. Drawing on 31 in depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews with 18 Indigenous and 13 non-Indigenous sex workers in Vancouver, Canada, and using insights from postcolonial theory and the stress process paradigm, this paper proposes four trajectories through which child removal by this system influences women’s health. First, mother-child separations generated a proliferation of severe mental distress, including elevated grief, anxiety, depression, and substance use, which had immediate and sustained implications for health. Second, separations worsened conditions of poverty, characterized by housing instability, the onset of homelessness and increased/newfound street-involvement, posing significant risks to health. Third, women faced increased social displacement, undermining access to positive relationships and consistent support as resources for health and rebuilding their families. Fourth, amidst indisputably difficult circumstances, women employed various strategies to heal and maintain or regenerate connections with their children and families, which were vital to their greater sense of wellness. Notably, while both Indigenous and White mothers described similar trajectories, Indigenous women appeared more severely jeopardized by separations and positive opportunities to reconnect with cultural ways and identities were described as paramount to healing. Taken together, the upheaval of family separation had consequences beyond the mechanism of mental distress and related health sequelae, to further alter social conditions, which carried additional health harms and vulnerabilities for many women. Findings call for more attention to how events of family separation affect the health and health determinants of marginalized sex workers, including attention to how social and health inequities may be both causes and consequences of intersections with this system. Sex worker and Indigenous-led solutions to better support families are needed.

Author

• Kathleen S Kenny, University of Manitoba