This proposal seeks funding for four years to adapt a family based alcohol and drug prevention program to an American Indian culture and evaluate its effectiveness. The proposed research will culturally modify a family prevention program that has been successfully tested with rural European American populations in panel studies conducted by the Center for Family Research in Rural Mental Health, Iowa State University. The investigators have worked closely with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwa in north central Minnesota from the inception of the proposal almost 2 years ago to assure that the project addresses a specific tribal need, and that the research will meet ethical criteria for working with American Indian people. The proposed research builds on an important strength of American Indian culture, the centrality of the family as an organizational and social control agency for society. The project will involve a pre-, post-test design and a one year follow-up study based on a sample of 300 Mille Lacs families with a target 5th - 8th grade adolescent child (150 intervention families and 150 control group families). The proposed intervention will be a 7-10 session program consisting of videotape and interactional family skills presentations that will include Mille Lacs parents, respected tribal elders, and elected tribal representatives in the presentations. Two family contact booster sessions will precede the l-year follow-up study to evaluate long-term program effects. Control group families will be offered the prevention program following the l-year follow-up study. The proposed research will provide much needed information about American Indian families while at the same time testing an existing family prevention program aimed at reducing a serious social problem, alcohol and drug use among American Indian youth.
| Whitbeck, Les B; McMorris, Barbara J; Hoyt, Dan R et al. (2002) Perceived discrimination, traditional practices, and depressive symptoms among American Indians in the upper midwest. J Health Soc Behav 43:400-18 |
| Whitbeck, L B; Hoyt, D R; McMorris, B J et al. (2001) Perceived discrimination and early substance abuse among American Indian children. J Health Soc Behav 42:405-24 |
| Whitbeck, L B (1999) Primary socialization theory: it all begins with the family. Subst Use Misuse 34:1025-32 |
