NCRE II: Native Children's Development in the Context of Substance Use

描述（由申请人提供）：北美的土著社区（美洲印第安人、阿拉斯加土著、加拿大第一民族和夏威夷土著）在药物使用问题上经常经历重大差异，包括滥用和依赖。在这些社区中，有太多的儿童在滥用药物成为常态的家庭中长大，这使他们的早期发展面临风险。后来，与其他群体的同龄人相比，土著青少年早期药物使用的风险更高，早期使用是长期和有问题使用风险的明显标志。因此，土著社区的药物使用既是对儿童发展的潜在影响，也是发展出错的潜在后果。一篇完整的关于本土语境下发展的文献不能合理地忽视物质使用。这一现实并没有逃过土著儿童研究交流（NCRE）的注意。NCRE成立于2008年，主办了两次会议（2008年和2009年），在会议上，研究土著儿童和青少年的学者聚集在一起，回顾研究并讨论土著文化中发展科学最紧迫的议程。在NCRE会议的圆桌讨论中，药物使用和滥用的背景一再受到重视。许多NCRE学者本身就直接从事物质使用研究；许多其他人认识到药物使用差异对他们工作的影响，反过来，他们的工作对药物使用干预的影响。NCRE学者之间对话的一个结果是认识到我们不能在真空中研究土著儿童的发展，而必须将其置于塑造发展的文化、社会、社会经济和自然环境背景中。药物使用是许多土著儿童经历的一个特点。因此，我们建议将一组五次年度会议的重点放在土著人口中物质使用与儿童发展之间的相互作用上。在这些会议中，我们将讨论三个具体目标：1)促进研究土著社区儿童发展的学者之间的互动和信息交流，特别侧重于研究情境物质使用的影响（例如，父母使用，大家庭和社区内的物质使用，同伴物质使用）和下一代药物滥用问题的发展；2)促进协作工作，推进与药物使用有关的土著儿童发展研究；3)为土著社区发展研究的新研究人员提供指导，并鼓励这些研究人员考虑物质使用差异对他们研究的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Native communities in North America (American Indian, Alaska Native, Canadian First Nations, and Native Hawaiian) often experience significant disparities in substance use problems, including abuse and dependence. Too many children in these communities grow up in households where substance abuse is the norm, putting early development at risk. Later, Native adolescents are at elevated risk for early substance use compared to their peers in other groups, and early use is a clear marker of risk for prolonged and problematic use. Thus, substance use in Native communities is both a potential influence on child development and a potential outcome of development gone awry. A complete literature on development in Native context cannot reasonably ignore substance use. This reality has not escaped the attention of the Native Children's Research Exchange (NCRE). Formed in 2008, NCRE has hosted two meetings (2008 and 2009) in which scholars working with Native children and adolescents have come together to review research and discuss the most pressing agendas for developmental science in Native cultures. In round-table discussions at NCRE meetings, the context of substance use and abuse has repeatedly been brought to the fore. Many NCRE scholars are themselves directly engaged in substance use research; many others recognize the implications of substance use disparities for their work and, in turn, the implications of their work for substance use intervention. One outgrowth of conversations among NCRE scholars has been the recognition that we cannot study indigenous child development in a vacuum, but must place it within the cultural, social, socioeconomic, and physical environmental contexts that shape development. Substance use is one context that characterizes the experience of many Native children. Thus, we propose to focus a set of five annual meetings on the interplay between substance use and child development in Native populations. In these meetings, we will address three specific aims: 1) Facilitate interaction and exchange of information among scholars studying child development in Native communities, with a particular focus on research on the effects of contextual substance use (e.g., parental use, substance use within the extended family and community, peer substance use) and the development of substance abuse problems in the next generation; 2) foster collaborative work to advance Native child development research related to substance use; and 3) provide mentorship to researchers new to developmental research in Native communities and encourage these researchers to consider the implications of substance use disparities for their research. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Native children and adolescents in North America often grow up in contexts characterized by high levels of substance use and are at relatively greater risk than others in the U.S. for developing drug abuse problems as they move through childhood and adolescence. Better understanding of both the impact of substance use environments on child development and the developmental course of substance problems in childhood and adolescence is needed to inform optimal timing of and strategies for preventive interventions. Meetings of the Native Children's Research Exchange - a cadre of scholars from around the U.S. and Canada whose work focuses on Native child and adolescent development - represent an optimal venue for advancing research on the interrelationships between substance use and development for Native youth.