Research Project 1

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD

Investigators

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY This study, “Cradling Our Future Long-Term (16-year) Follow-Up,” will determine if an evidence based early childhood home visiting intervention, called “Family Spirit®,” reduces long-term substance use, suicide, and related consequences among American Indian mothers and their children 16 years after they exited the program (at 3 years postpartum). Substance use and suicide comprise the largest and most harmful public health problems for American Indians. Family Spirit was designed over an 8-year period with and for American Indian communities through an intensive community based participatory process to promote behavioral and mental health across two generations. The original “Cradling Our Future” study (NIDA R01 DA019042-01A1) was a 1:1 randomized controlled trial that enrolled N = 322 expectant teen mothers by 32 weeks gestation and followed them and their children to 3 years postpartum. Mothers randomized to the intervention group received home visiting lessons delivered by local American Indian paraprofessionals focused on positive parenting and content addressing maternal stress, substance use, and depression. The control condition was transportation to prenatal and well-child visits and facilitated connections to community resources, which mothers in both the intervention and control arms received. Trial results demonstrated Family Spirit significantly improved parenting efficacy, reduced marijuana and illicit drug use and depressive symptoms in mothers, and improved social, emotional, and behavioral development for children until 3 years postpartum in ways that would predict less substance use and lower suicide risk and related problems across teen mothers' and youth's developmental life course. Based on this evidence, home visitors and supervisors have been trained to implement Family Spirit in over 150 Tribal and non-Tribal communities across the US, but long-term impacts of this and other home visiting programs on problematic substance use, overdose, and suicide are vastly understudied. The aims of this follow-up study are to identify long-term impacts of Family Spirit on mothers' (at 30-39 years old) and their children's (at 18-19 years old) substance use and suicidal thoughts and behaviors, while exploring moderators (i.e., stress, community engagement) and mediators (i.e., continued positive parenting) of effects. We will also use qualitative narrative inquiry methodology to explore individual and intergenerational drug use pathways (e.g., first use, misuse, polydrug use, pre-addiction, abstinence, recovery) with a sub-sample of participants. If favorable long-term impacts are found, findings could leverage federal support for evidence-based home visiting implementation that is still underutilized in tribal communities. Tribal nations need greater evidence for effective solutions to address behavioral and mental health outcomes related to substance use.