Acculturation and Adolescent Substance Abuse Prevention

University Of Texas Austin, Austin TX

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term objective of the K01 is to expand the applicant's research capabilities in the area of acculturation and adolescent drug abuse prevention. The applicant's clinical background and research experience have been in the areas of adolescent substance abuse, ethnic identity, and prevention programs, largely involving qualitative methodologies. The present application proposes a structured program of mentoring, training, and supervised research to increase her capacity to conduct high-quality research blending state of the art qualitative and quantitative methodologies. This K01 will accomplish this through the following specific aims: AIM 1 is to provide a structured program of: 1) mentoring by a team of nationally known federally-funded researchers, 2) course work in areas of theory, methodology, and intervention design, and 3) training visits to nationally known substance abuse research centers to gather information regarding theory, methodology, intervention strategy, project management, and grantsmanship. AIM 2 is to provide a supervised research experience to allow the applicant to explore the role of acculturation and ethnic identification and their implications for prevention with multi-ethnic high-risk youth. The applicant will collaborate with Co-mentors at Arizona State University (Marsiglia) and University of Pennsylvania (Hecht) in the implementation of the Drug Resistance Strategies (DRS-4) project, a school based prevention curriculum with an acculturation component. Specifically, the applicant's involvement will incorporate two innovations stemming from the applicant's preliminary studies: 1) addition of expanded conceptualization and measurement of the acculturation and acculturative stress constructs to the DRS intervention in Arizona, and 2) exploratory testing of the DRS in Austin with multiethnic youth in community-based sites with high-risk youth often excluded by school-based programs. The Austin component will involve qualitative and qualitative techniques. AIM 3 is to design an R01 application to develop and evaluate new acculturatively appropriate prevention approaches with high-risk youth in community settings.