Native Americans are among the most disadvantaged of all U.S. populations, suffering from unemployment, prejudice, lack of educational opportunity and high rates of diabetes, tuberculosis, infant mortality, adolescent suicide, and death from accidents. Many of these problems may be rooted in or exacerbated by substance use, but the Senior Survey and National Household survey do not include enough Indians to adequately assess drug use of Indian youth. We have provided epidemiology data on drug use of Native American adolescents who live on reservations since 1974. Drug use trends for Indian youth are similar to those for other American youth, increasing to 1981 and stabilizing or dropping after that. Indian youth, however, use drugs and alcohol at rates two or even three times higher than other youth. These data have played central role in policy and planning for treatment, prevention and legislation. This project will continue to provide data on trends in drug use of Indian 7th through 12th grade students through the next five years, surveying a representative sample of 2000 to 3000 youth attending reservation schools each year. Inhalant use is a particularly serious problem among Indian youth. A detailed study of inhalant use will include what inhalants are used, which ones were first used and at what ages, and how early inhalant use relates to current use of other drugs. Attitudes to school drug education programs will be examined and related to drug use and other psychosocial characteristics. Concurrent relationships examining the correlates of drug use will be studied covering, in various studies, psychological characteristics (self-esteem, self-confidence, alienation, blame, anger, depression, anxiety, trust/mistrust), social characteristics (family, community, school, religion, and peer relationships), and cultural identification.
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