This report presents the findings and methodology of a comparison of the effectiveness of two programs intended to counter substance abuse among Native American Adolescents.
This study was conducted in Oklahoma with the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, which lives in a 14-county jurisdictional area. Alcohol abuse is currently the leading and perhaps most costly risk factor among Native-American youth, underlying many causes of Native-American deaths and contributing to many adverse physical conditions and premature deaths. The current study was a 3-year plan that used a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach guided by Stringer’s three phases of participatory action research. The drug-prevention programs involved in this comparative evaluation were the Cherokee Talking Circle (CTC) program and the Standard Substance Abuse Education (SE). The CTC is a 10-session, manual-based intervention designed for Keetoowah-Cherokee students in the early stages of abusing substances and experiencing adverse effects. Students participated in a group led by a counselor and cultural expert, who used the format of a talking circle once a week for 10 weeks. The manual used both English and Cherokee languages. The SE program promotes a school/law partnership in which a police officer conducts a curriculum and workbook on substances/drug education in a classroom setting. The evaluation collected data at pre-intervention, immediate post-intervention, and 90-day post-intervention. The Cherokee Self-Reliance Questionnaire, Global Assessment of Individual Needs, and Written Stories of Stress were selected and administered at the administration points. A total of 187 Cherokee students were recruited for the study. Study results indicate that a culturally based (traditional Cherokee character values) intervention (CTC) was significantly more effective in reducing substance abuse and related problems than the non-cultural SE program. This suggests that drug prevention programs for Native Americans be tailored to each tribe’s cultural character values. 3 figures, 1 table, and 32 references