Drug Use Among Young Indians: Epidemiology & Prediction

描述（由申请人提供）：该项目将继续一项为期30年的监测工作，评估在保留地学校就读的美国印第安青少年药物使用的水平和模式。在这个为期五年的项目中，每年将对居住在保留地的1500名印度青年进行代表性抽样，在他们的学校教室里进行全面的药物使用情况调查。此外，调查将包括有关暴力、受害和犯罪行为的问题；该机构将在10年的时间里继续监控这些行为。监测工作的目的是观察随时间的变化，准确描述这些领域，深入了解吸毒、暴力和受害的性质，并为设计和评估干预工作的工作提供信息。由于在许多保留地社区中，美国印第安青年吸食大麻和酗酒的比例一直很高，达到了规范或接近规范的水平，因此将获得有关这些行为的态度和感知规范的扩展调查数据。大麻、醉酒（规范行为）和吸入剂使用（非规范行为）的特定物质变量将从保留地学校和生活在农村地区的非印第安青年随机样本中获得。关于对大麻态度的新项目将包括在调查中，规范社会行为理论将用于比较印度和非印度青年的态度。将使用分层线性模型来评估这三种物质使用（酒精、吸入剂和大麻）的感知规范环境对个人和学校层面的影响，这三种物质使用代表不同程度的规范和非规范使用。除了感知到的规范环境的影响，文化认同的作用也将作为一个调节或中介变量进行检查。该项目的最终目标是根据项目结果制定一系列建议，以设计专门针对美洲印第安青年有效的毒品、酒精和暴力预防方案。将向学校提供关于其调查结果的广泛反馈，目的是提高社区对药物使用水平和模式的认识，为预防活动争取资金，并评价在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吸毒情况进行30年的监测。这些数据被不同的机构用来制定政策，以减少这些年轻人的物质使用。重要的是，参与的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作为需求声明。

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.