The Value of Cultural Adaptation Processes: Older Youth Participants as Substance Abuse Preventionists
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The Value of Cultural Adaptation Processes: Older Youth Participants as Substance Abuse Preventionists Lori K. Holleran Steiker • Jeremy Goldbach Laura M. Hopson • Tara Powell
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Published online: 13 August 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011
Abstract This National Institutes of Health (National Institute on Drug Abuse) funded study employed focus groups to explore the value of: (a) engaging youth as experts in their own drug culture to engage them in open, honest discussion around substance use in their communities; and (b) allowing youth within a range of settings to systematically recreate unique workbook and video scenarios while maintaining the core components of an evidence-based substance abuse prevention program. Researchers collaborated with community based agencies that serve high risk youth, including youth who were incarcerated, homeless, in alternative high schools, in low-income housing programs, and on the US-Mexico border. The research indicates that high-risk youth in community settings can be actively engaged in adapting evidence-based prevention curricula. Youth emphasized their reasons for using drugs, as well as the salient consequences, and the value of tailored scenarios that incorporate their life experiences, language, drugs of choice, and relevant motivators. Serendipitous findings noted attitude changes related to dissonance between the adaptation component participants’ behaviors and their input as ‘‘Preventionists.’’ Findings have implications for developing prevention strategies that may be helpful for older, high-risk youth. L. K. Holleran Steiker (&) J. Goldbach T. Powell University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work, 1925 San Jacinto Boulevard, Austin, TX 78712, USA e-mail: [email protected] J. Goldbach e-mail: [email protected] T. Powell e-mail: [email protected] L. M. Hopson University at Albany School of Social Welfare, 135 Western Avenue, Richardson Hall, Room 208, Albany, NY 12222, USA e-mail: [email protected]
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Keywords Prevention Adolescent substance abuse Culture Adaptation Cognitive dissonance Trans-theoretical model
According to the most recent results from the monitoring the future (MTF) study (Johnston et al. 2005), a nationwide survey of secondary students, about two-fifths (39%) of students have consumed alcohol (more than just a few sips) by 8th grade and almost three quarters of students (72%) by the end of high school. Furthermore, over half (55%) of 12th graders and nearly a fifth (18%) of 8th graders in 2008 report having been drunk at least once in their life. The use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs (ATOD) in childhood is predictive of future substance abuse issues and other related problems such as family tensions, poor school performance and violence (Hawkins et al. 1992; Johnston et al. 2005). Youth who have already started using ATOD are often considered inappropriate for prevention curricula because of their active experimentation with substance
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