American Indians are among the most disadvantaged of all U. S. populations, suffering from unemployment, prejudice, lack of educational opportunity and high rates of diabetes, tuberculosis, adult alcoholism, infant mortality, adolescent suicide and death by accidents. Many of these problems are either rooted in or exacerbated by substance use. The national U. S. population surveys, however, do not include enough American Indians to adequately assess adolescent substance use. We have provided epidemiology data on drug use of reservation-based American Indian youth since 1974. Indian youth use drugs at rates two to three times those for other American youth. There is some evidence that American Indian youth also have high rates for violence, criminal behaviors, and high rates of victimization, but detailed data on these problems are not available. It is also likely that alcohol and drug use are involved in or associated with these problems, but there are no data on the links between substance use and these other problems. This project will continue to chart the trends in the epidemiology of drug use among American Indian youth who live on reservations. It will also determine the rates for violence, victimization, and other criminal behaviors including shoplifting, car theft, petty theft, serious theft, driving while drunk or on drugs, other driving offenses, school offenses, drug distribution, vandalism, sexual assault and firesetting. Questions also ask whether alcohol and/or drugs were involved in these acts. The project will survey a sample of youth from a 9 Indian reservations each year, stratified for geographic location and relative isolation from urban centers. The in-school sample will include all 7th through 12th grade students, with follow-up surveying to obtain information from absentees. A sample of dropouts from each reservation will also be surveyed, stratified so substance use, victimization and criminal behaviors can be assessed for early (7th-8th grade), middle (9-10) and late (11-12) dropouts.
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