Native American Indian adolescents: Response to a culturally tailored, school -based substance abuse intervention

Native American Indian adolescent substance abuse has been a longstanding health concern. There are few culturally tailored interventions for mild to moderate substance users. The purpose of this study was to measure the response of Native American Indian adolescents from the Plains tribal groups to a school-based culturally tailored substance abuse intervention adapted from the Cherokee Self-Reliance Model (CSRM). First, the CSRM and Cherokee Talking Circle Intervention (CTCI) were culturally tailored for Native American Plains Indian at-risk adolescents. The adaptation process resulted in the emergence of the Circular Model of Cultural Tailoring. The Circular Model of Cultural Tailoring includes four key elements and three patterns of knowing which describe processes that may facilitate intervention adaptations for specific tribal groups. Second, using the adapted and culturally tailored model, three research hypotheses were tested. A pre-test, post-test quantitative design was used to examine the Plains tribal adolescents' responses to the 10 hour culturally congruent substance abuse prevention intervention. The intervention was presented in 30-45 minute sessions during an 8½ week time period from October to December 2011. The hypotheses were that there would be an increase in self-reliance, a decrease in substance use and associated behaviors, and a decrease in perceived stress following completion of the culturally tailored intervention.;Institutional Review Board permissions were received and parental consent and student assent obtained prior to study implementation. A convenience sample (N = 44) of students ranging in age from 16-18 was recruited from two rural southwestern Oklahoma high schools. The students were assigned to groups based on their school of enrollment. Measurement tools included the Native Self-Reliance Questionnaire, the Global Assessment Individual Needs-Quick (GAIN-Q), and the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC) analysis for written stories of stress; and a demographic questionnaire.;After the intervention, the self-reliance scores increased significantly. The GAIN-Q results showed a significant decrease substance use/abuse, life problems, internal behavioral problems. No significant effect on external behavior problems was found. The LIWC analysis found no significant changes in perceived stress levels.