The Value of Cultural Adaptation Processes: Older Youth Participants as Substance Abuse Preventionists

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.

Understanding the needs of local youth to inform drug and alcohol prevention and harm reduction services: A qualitative study

“…When lived realities are incorporated they have the effect of grounding the preventive strategies in the social, geographical and cultural contexts of the "consumer" or target audience. 37 Third, our findings suggest the value of involving peer workers in prevention and harm reduction work. Research continues to mount around the benefits of peer-led strategies.…”

Developing Empirically Based, Culturally Grounded Drug Prevention Interventions for Indigenous Youth Populations

“…These interventions have been shown to be effective in reducing substance use in the schools, 13,23 and have also been effectively adapted to community-based settings with high-risk youth. 63,64 The impact of these interventions is particularly important for rural indigenous communities in Hawai‘i, as these communities reside in areas that have been found to have service delivery problems and a lack of services related to substance abuse prevention or treatment. 65,66 In the case of the PSCR study, the process of grounding prevention interventions in rural Hawaiian communities was participatory and collaborative.…”

Evidence for Site-Specific, Systematic Adaptation of Substance Prevention Curriculum With High-Risk Youths in Community and Alternative School Settings

“…The study began with a systematic adaptation of an evidence-based prevention program, keepin’ it REAL (KiR) (Holleran, Goldbach, Hopson, & Powell, 2011). The adaptations were intended to enhance the curriculum’s cultural relevance for older adolescents who are likely to have initiated drug use.…”

“…By involving youth as drug and alcohol experts in the context of their culture, the curriculum is tailored to reflect their life experiences, making it more relevant than the original curriculum (Holleran Steiker et al, 2011). Participants created four new videos (one for each prevention strategy; Refuse, Explain, Avoid, and Leave) to accompany the curriculum and illustrate each of four KiR resistance strategies.…”

“…The findings from Phase I include the following: (1) adaptation processes engage youth who are often averse to prevention programs and messages, and (2) by engaging older adolescents (who often have already used or even abused drugs) as experts, the curriculum can be transformed into culturally-grounded versions for younger youth and peers of the adapters (Holleran Steikeret al, 2011; Holleran, Sagun, Hopson & Goldbach, 2007). The study qualitatively supported the use of adaptation processes to improve the curriculum and the process of adapting the curriculum as a means of changing participants’ attitudes and behaviors regarding drugs and alcohol (Holleran Steiker et al, 2011). …”