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Community engagement (CE) is widely acknowledged as a way to enhance the ethics, rigor, and impact of research. Additionally, CE is a demonstrated way to integrate Indigenous and colonial (western) research systems. For these reasons and others, designers of the Multi-site Implementation Evaluation of Tribal Home Visiting (MUSE) used a community-engaged approach to study the implementation of federally funded home-visiting programs across 17 Indigenous communities throughout the United States. This paper describes MUSE's community-engaged approach and its practical applications from the perspective of the MUSE study team. The paper highlights key outcomes attributable to CE, addresses barriers to CE, and details responses to these barriers and their impacts. Adding to the rich evidence base demonstrating the value of community-engaged approaches, MUSE demonstrates that in-depth CE is feasible and valuable in multisite studies done in partnership with Indigenous communities., (© 2024 The Author(s). Infant Mental Health Journal published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.)

Background: Few, if any, home visiting programs for children under the age of three have been culturally adapted for American Indian reservation settings. We recently adapted one such program: Promoting First Relationships®., Objectives: To culturally adapt Promoting First Relationships® while maintaining program fidelity, we used a community-based participatory approach to elicit input from two American Indian partners., Methods: University-based researchers, reservation-based Native project staff, and Native tribal liaisons conducted collaborative meetings, conference calls, and focus groups to adapt Promoting First Relationships® to reflect local community needs and values., Lessons Learned: Working closely with onsite Native project staff, being flexible and open to suggestions, and attending to the logistical needs of the community are imperative to developing and implementing adaptations., Conclusions: Several adaptations were made based on the collaboration between researchers and Native project staff. Collaboration is critical for adapting programs so they can be tested in ways that respect both American Indian culture and research needs.

Objectives: We explored the association between stressful life events and postpartum depressive symptoms among non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) mothers., Methods: We analyzed self-reports of stressful life events and depressive symptoms from 298 AI/AN respondents and conducted logistic regression to examine their association., Results: Of the AI/AN mothers who responded, 29.7% reported depressive symptoms during their second postpartum year. Partner-related and traumatic stressful life events were significantly associated with increased risk of postpartum depressive symptoms., Conclusions: AI/AN women should receive intensive screening for depression through the second postpartum year. Programs that address stressful life events may be part of a plan to decrease postpartum depression.