Violence as related to alcohol and drug use will be investigated through a multidimensional, multidisciplinary, community-praxis ethnographic study in a Mexican American town. The three-year study is modeled after the Glittenberg twenty-five community studies of the NSF-funded Guatemalan Earthquake Study; 1977-82 (1989) and seven Glittenberg Project GENESIS ethnographic studies, 1980-85 (1982). The research will build upon the 1995 preliminary Project GENESIS study of South Tucson and the 1996 NIDA (Michael Agar, P.I.) methamphetamine multi-site project (Tucson site directed by Glittenberg) as well as two earlier studies done by Greenberg (Co-PI) and Velez-Ibanez on knowledge fund and brokering in the education in that community. A majority of Hispanic American researchers, along with representatives from the community, will carry out the study. Research strategies will include: community inventory, historical document analysis, participant observation, microanalysis of violent episodes, and analytic sampling for focus groups, family groups, and key informant interviews. A community advisory board, formed before the study begins, will advise the research team, evaluate the ongoing process, and participate in problem-solving. A project advisory board and consultants composed of local and national experts will be used throughout the study period. The multiple sources of data will be continuously coded, analyzed and interpreted. A cultural consensus profile of the multi-dimensions (society, family and individual) will compare and contrast cultural norms and rules that sanction and promote alcohol/drug related violence and those that inhibit protect, or build resilience. using standards of qualitative research methods, ongoing evaluation will include: audits of credibility, prolonged engagement, negative case analysis, progressive subjectivity, transferability, dependability, an confirmability. Because the study is community-based praxis findings will be used by the townspeople in preventing and intervening in violence in this Mexican American town and for health policy recommendations for other similar communities.
