Finding Strength in Culture: A Video Series for American Indian Parents

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Over five hundred years of contact with European culture has had a profound impact on American Indian communities, with destructive policies implemented in the service of assimilation efforts that broke up the extended family and community. The strains of history pressing on American Indian families are reflected in research indicating weakened family connections, unemployment, poverty, isolation, and oppression, all of which can serve as powerful explanatory factors for a child's entry into a difficult life trajectory. Their youth disproportionately experience many difficulties, particularly substance use. Though modern-day science is replete with evidence of effective parent- and family-based interventions for preventing or reducing the ills that afflict American Indian families, extremely-limited penetration of these interventions into American Indian communities has happened due to an incompatibility between modern psychology and traditional Indian values. It is critical that mainstream and American Indian communities partner in investing time and resources to determine whether the core strengths of effective mainstream programs may in fact be consonant with American Indian beliefs and values. In the current proposal, we seek to develop and test a potential media- based bridge to facilitate the connection among American Indian peoples and mainstream protective intervention approaches. The product of our Phase I and II efforts will be a video series that will interweave discussion of time-honored parenting practices in American Indian communities into the intervention process of effective parenting and family programs. The video series will ultimately consist of: 1) three videos exploring historical trauma; 2) 8-10 videos featuring the most effective, protective, parenting practices embedded within a framework of pan-tribal family and community values; and 3) an accompanying series guide designed to assist family interventionists to use the videos as a component of culturally competent care. In Phase I, we will: 1) focus groups and cultural experts to identify pan-tribal beliefs and values regarding parenting; 2) use a formative evaluation process to create prototypes of two parenting videos and one historical trauma video; and 3) evaluate the videos on knowledge acquisition, motivation and emotion, consumer satisfaction, and usability/value. The outcome evaluation sample will include 40 American Indian parents of children ages 6-11, and 15 mental health professionals in agencies serving American Indian families. The finished video series will reflect content that is cross-tribal, -intervention program, and -developmental level and be a desirable component of prevention-related parenting programs and family-based treatment programs appropriate to a broad range of social agencies which serve American Indian families. Public Health Relevance: Over five hundred years of contact with European/Anglo culture has had a profound impact on American Indian communities, as destructive policies implemented in the service of assimilation efforts have broken up the extended family and community. Though modern-day science is replete with evidence of effective parent- and family-based interventions for preventing or reducing the ills that afflict American Indian families, these interventions have not taken hold in American Indian communities, and there is reason to believe that the lack of cultural context is primarily responsible for this disconnect. The proposed video series will serve as a bridge to facilitate a connection among American Indian peoples and mainstream protective intervention approaches, particularly those geared towards substance use, so that social agencies offering prevention-related parenting programs and family-based treatments can effectively link their material to American Indian strengths and values.