The importance of elbow room in Ken Kesey's novels.

This study describes how identity development is influenced by culture, family and community and explores how raising children with the MCFD involvement is viewed by seven Aboriginal parents in British Columbia. It presents their narratives as teachings on what relationships families found supported and undermined their efforts to parent. Snowball sampling was used to recruit participants as key informants and qualitative research methodology was used to structure interviews. Although the recruitment process for key informants contributed to pronounced diversity between participants, the research findings showed overarching and congruent themes between the experiences of participants. The themes that emerged from the research were situated in two theoretical models for Aboriginal identity development and were used to present the research findings. The primary themes that emerged were the importance of family, community, and culture. However, of greater note is how the overarching themes of responsibility, commitment and accountability to family and community maintain Aboriginal parents' identities. --P. ii.