Cuqyun: Predictors of Alaska Native Adolescent Sobriety and Reasons for Living

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Alaska Native (AN) youth face significant health disparities associated with alcohol and suicide. Cuqyun (measuring tool) is a developmental project whose long term objective is programmatic research leading to an AN youth alcohol and suicide prevention trial to address these health disparities. The project builds on previous work with AN adults that used a community based participatory research (CBPR) methodology and a strengths-based, positive psychology focus in study of AN sobriety. Cuqyun proposes to extend this research to important variables in AN adolescent alcohol abuse and suicide. The project has three specific aims: (1) Culturally adapt for AN adolescents measures of variables associated with sobriety and reasons for living using a CBPR approach to measurement adaptation. (2) Test these adapted measures' psychometric properties with a sample of 475 AN adolescents age 3-18. (3) Test the predictive validity of these measures in an emically-derived model of AN sobriety and reasons for living suggested by previous CBPR. This final aim will also provide an empirical test of the multilevel pathway model of sobriety on which the proposed preventive intervention program of research is based. The measures that Cuqyun seeks to culturally adapt are variables conceived as proximal outcomes for specific intervention components within a prevention trial. Two additional variables are conceived as ultimate outcome variables. This developmental work will (1) provide necessary foundations for a prevention trial with Alaska Native youth, (2) advance CBPR methods with tribal communities in the area of measurement development, and (3) enhance our understanding of culture specific protective factors among Alaska Native and other ethnic minority groups to address health disparities.