Drug Use Among Young Indians: Epidemiology & Prediction

描述（由申请人提供）：该项目将继续进行30年的监测工作，评估参加保留地学校的美国印第安青少年的物质使用水平和模式。在这个为期五年的项目中，每年将对居住在保留地的1500名印度青年进行一次全面的药物使用调查。此外，调查还将包括有关暴力、受害和犯罪行为的问题;调查将在10年内继续监测这些行为。监测工作的目的是观察随着时间的推移而发生的变化，准确描述这些领域，深入了解吸毒、暴力和受害的性质，并为那些设计和评价干预工作的人提供信息。由于在许多保留社区的美国印第安青年中大麻和醉酒的持续高比率，达到规范或接近规范的水平，将获得关于这些行为的态度和感知规范的扩展调查数据。将从保留地学校和生活在农村地区的非印度青年随机抽样中获得大麻、醉酒（规范行为）和吸入剂使用（非规范）的物质特定变量。关于对大麻的态度的新项目将被列入调查，规范社会行为理论将被用来比较印度和非印度青年之间的态度。分层线性模型将被用来评估个人和学校一级的影响，这三种类型的物质使用（酒精，吸入剂和大麻），代表不同水平的规范和非规范的使用感知规范的环境。除了感知的规范环境的影响，文化认同的作用也将作为一个调节或中介变量进行审查。该项目的最后一个目标是根据项目的调查结果，为设计专门针对美洲印第安青年的毒品、酒精和暴力预防方案提出一系列建议。将向学校提供关于其调查结果的广泛反馈，调查的目的是提高社区对吸毒程度和模式的认识，为预防活动获得资金，并评价社区实施的预防干预措施的有效性。公共卫生相关性：该项目将继续对美洲印第安青年的药物使用进行30年的监测。这些数据已被各机构用于制定减少这些青年使用药物的政策。重要的是，所涉部落利用这些数据提高了对其社区毒品使用水平的认识，评估了预防干预措施，并在申请预防资金时说明了需求。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project will continue a 30 year surveillance effort assessing the levels and patterns of substance use among American Indian adolescents attending reservation schools. Each year of the five year project a representative sample of 1500 Indian youth living on reservations will be given a comprehensive drug use survey in their school classroom. In addition, the survey will contain questions regarding violence, victimization and delinquent behaviors; which will continue surveillance of these behaviors over a 10-year period. The purposes of the surveillance work are to observe changes over time, to accurately describe these domains, to provide insight into the nature of drug use, violence and victimization and to inform the efforts of those designing and evaluating intervention efforts. Due to the continuing high rates of marijuana and drunkenness among American Indian youth in many reservation communities, reaching levels that are normative or near normative, extended survey data will be obtained on the attitudes and perceived norms for these behaviors. Substance-specific variables for marijuana, getting drunk (normative behaviors) and inhalant use (non-normative) will be obtained from reservation schools and from a random sample of non-Indian youth living in rural areas. New items regarding attitudes toward marijuana will be included in the survey and the Theory of Normative Social Behavior will be used to compare the attitudes between Indian and non-Indian youth. Hierarchical linear models will be used to assess both the individual and school-level effects of the perceived normative environment for these three types of substance use (alcohol, inhalants and marijuana) which represent varying levels of normative and non-normative use. In addition to the effects of the perceived normative environment, the role of cultural identification will also be examined as a moderating or mediating variable. A final goal of the project is to develop a series of recommendations, based on project findings, for the design of drug, alcohol and violence prevention programs that will be effective specifically for American Indian youth. Schools will be provided with extensive feedback on their survey results which is intended to raise community awareness of drug use levels and patterns, to obtain funding for prevention activities and to evaluate the effectiveness of prevention interventions that have been implemented in the community. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project will continue 30 years of surveillance of drug use among American Indian youth. These data have been used by various agencies to create policies for reducing substance use for these youth. Importantly, the tribes involved have used the data to raise awareness of the levels of drug use in their communities, to evaluate prevention interventions and as a statement of need when applying for prevention funding.