This paper describes a five-stage approach toward conducting an ecologically based assessment with Indigenous youth populations, and the implications of this approach for the development and implementation of culturally grounded prevention interventions. A description of a pilot study funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH/NIDA) focused on drug use and American Indian youth is presented as one model for operationalizing ecologically based assessment with Indigenous youth populations, and issues related to translating the pilot study into a prevention intervention are discussed. This paper suggests that ecologically based assessment can serve as a foundation for culturally grounded prevention interventions, promoting the social and ecological validity of those interventions.
Editors’ Strategic Implications: By basing the intervention components on assessments of population needs and abilities, the authors demonstrate how programs may be responsive to participants embedded in specific cultural contexts. This type of forward engineering changes the focus of adaptation to program development and should serve as a model for all those developing interventions as well as those working to adapt effective programs to meet the needs of specific populations.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study was supported by National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Drug Abuse funding for the Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center at Arizona State University (R-24 DA 13937-01) and seed funding from the Office of the Vice President for Research and the College of Public Programs at Arizona State University.
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Okamoto, S.K., LeCroy, C.W., Tann, S.S. et al. The Implications of Ecologically Based Assessment for Primary Prevention with Indigenous Youth Populations. J Primary Prevent 27, 155–170 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10935-005-0016-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10935-005-0016-6