Culture and COVID-19 Related Impacts on Alcohol-Exposed Pregnancy Risk Among Urban American Indian and Alaska Native Young Adults: A Path Analysis.

Purpose: We investigated the influence of COVID-19 pandemic-related factors and cultural identification on indicators of alcohol-exposed pregnancy (AEP) risk among urban American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) youth ages 16-20.

Methods: Path analysis was used to evaluate associations among measures collected at baseline of the Native WYSE CHOICES, an intervention study to reduce AEP risk among urban AIAN youth. Data were collected nationally from 439 female-at-birth AIAN youth (mean age 18.

One-month outcomes of a culturally tailored alcohol-exposed pregnancy prevention mobile app among urban Native young women: A randomized controlled trial of Native WYSE CHOICES.

Background: The majority of alcohol-exposed pregnancy (AEP) prevention programs for Native women have focused on at-risk adult women residing in rural tribal communities; however, over 70% of the Native population resides in urban areas. Moreover, Native young women universally-regardless of risk status-may benefit from culturally tailored resources. We hypothesized that urban Native young women who engaged with Native WYSE CHOICES (NWC), a culturally tailored AEP prevention intervention delivered by mobile phone app, would report reduced risk of AEP at the 1-month follow-up compared to those who engaged with a comparison condition.

Flexibility and resilience in equity-centered research: lessons learned conducting a randomized controlled trial of a family-based substance use prevention program for American Indian families.

Meaningful and effective community engagement lies at the core of equity-centered research, which is a powerful tool for addressing health disparities in American Indian (AI) communities. It is essential for centering Indigenous wisdom as a source of solutions and disrupting Western-centric perspectives and inequitable and exclusionary research practices. This paper reports on lessons learned implementing an effectiveness trial of the Thiwáhe Glúwaš'akapi program (TG) program (translated as "sacred home in which families are made strong")-a family-based substance use prevention program-in a post-pandemic era with an American Indian reservation community that has confronted extreme challenges.

Centering culture in an mHealth adaptation of an alcohol-exposed pregnancy prevention program for American Indian Youth.

Native WYSE CHOICES adapted an Alcohol Exposed Pregnancy (AEP) prevention curriculum for mobile health delivery for young urban American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) women. This qualitative study explored the relevance of culture in adapting a health intervention with a national sample of urban AIAN youth. In total, the team conducted 29 interviews across three iterative rounds.

Classification of Students by Race and Hispanic/Latino/a/x Ethnicity Impacts Estimates of the Prevalence of Substance Use.

Multiracial and Hispanic/Latino/a/x youth are rapidly growing populations in the United States. When considered in substance use studies, they are often treated as homogeneous groups despite important demographic and cultural differences. The current study explores how substance use prevalence may differ depending on how precisely race and ethnicity groups are categorized.

Grounding evidence-based prevention within cultural context: promising effects of substance use prevention adapted for American Indian families.

: Effective substance use prevention strategies are needed for American Indian (AI) youth, who face disproportionate risk for early substance use and consequently bear a disproportionate burden of health and developmental disparities related to early use. With few exceptions, significant advances in prevention science have largely excluded this population, leaving gaps in the evidence of effective practice. This paper builds on emerging efforts to address this gap, reporting first outcome findings from an evidence-based early substance use prevention program culturally adapted for young adolescents on a Northern Plains reservation.

Measure of Socialization of American Indian Children (MOSAIC): Understanding the roots of ethnic-racial identity.

Objectives: The Measure of Socialization of American Indian Children (MOSAIC) was created as part of a larger study developing a family-based and culturally grounded substance use prevention program for young American Indian (AI) adolescents. The MOSAIC was designed to measure ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) for use with AI families to support better understanding of the roots of ethnic-racial identity among AI youth and their relationship to risk for substance use in early adolescence.

Method: This study was conducted in partnership with a Lakota reservation community.

Virtual Research with Urban Native Young Women: Cautionary Tales in the Time of a Pandemic.

Background: Community-based participatory research is a particularly powerful approach to research with American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) communities who have been subject to a history of mistreatment and unethical research. In person meetings, discussion, and engagement with tribal members and the community have become an essential component of community-based participatory research in AIAN communities. With the advent of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, AIAN communities have moved to close or sharply curtail in-person activities, precluding in-person research methods.

Crisis-Resilient and Antiracist Approaches to Community-Based Participatory Research During COVID-19 and Beyond.

Social and health inequities among communities of color are deeply embedded in the United States and were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a powerful approach to advance health equity. However, emergencies both as global as a pandemic or as local as a forest fire have the power to interrupt research programs and weaken community relationships.

Moving the prevention timeline: A scoping review of the literature on precursors to sexual risk in early adolescence among youth of color.

Introduction: Sexual health disparities are leading causes of morbidity among youth of color in the United States. We conducted a scoping review of the literature on precursors to sexual risk-taking among young adolescents of color (ages 10-14) to assess precedents of sexual experience and their utility as measurable proximal constructs and behaviors gauging sexual risk and sexual risk prevention efforts.

Methods: This study was conducted using the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines.

APPLYING THE LIFESPAN MODEL OF ETHNIC-RACIAL IDENTITY: EXPLORING AFFECT, BEHAVIOR, AND COGNITION TO PROMOTE WELL-BEING.

This paper presents an application of the Lifespan Model of Ethnic-Racial Identity (ERI) Development (see Williams, et al., in press). Using a tripartite approach, we present the affective, behavioral, and cognitive aspects of ERI in a framework that can be adapted for group and individual psychosocial interventions across the lifespan.

A Lifespan Model of Ethnic-Racial Identity.

The current paper presents a lifespan model of ethnic-racial identity (ERI) from infancy into adulthood. We conceptualize that ethnic-racial priming during infancy prompts nascent awareness of ethnicity/race that becomes differentiated across childhood and through adulthood. We propose that the components of ERI that have been tested to date fall within five dimensions across the lifespan: ethnic-racial awareness, affiliation, attitudes, behaviors, and knowledge.

Integrating Community-Engagement and a Multiphase Optimization Strategy Framework: Adapting Substance Use Prevention for American Indian Families.

Initiation of substance use often occurs earlier among American Indian (AI) youth than among other youth in the USA, bringing increased risk for a variety of poor health and developmental outcomes. Effective prevention strategies are needed, but the evidence base remains thin for this population. Research makes clear that prevention strategies need to be culturally coherent; programs with an evidence base in one population cannot be assumed to be effective in another.

Frequent residential mobility among American Indians and early indications of sexual risk among young adolescents.

American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth are more likely to ever have had sex, and to have engaged in sexual activity prior to age 13 compared to all other race groups. It is essential to understand the development of skills to refuse sexual experience in early adolescence in order to reduce disparities associated with early sexual debut among AI/AN youth. Familial, social, and individual factors can act as protective influences on adolescent sexual experience; however, in other settings, research has shown that frequent residential mobility disrupts these protective influences and may increase the likelihood of adolescent sexual activity.

Beyond Content: Cultural Perspectives on Using the Internet to Deliver a Sexual Health Intervention to American Indian Youth.

American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) youth are characterized by high rates of pregnancy and risky sexual behavior. Reaching these youth with culturally appropriate interventions is difficult due to geographic dispersion and cultural isolation. Online interventions can provide opportunities for reaching and engaging AIAN youth.

Planning for a group-randomized trial with American Indian youth.

Purpose: To describe lessons learned working with tribal communities in the Northern Plains to plan and implement a group randomized trial of multimedia Circle of Life (mCOL), a sexual risk reduction program designed for American Indian (AI) youth.

Methods: Project records including emails, travel reports, and meeting minutes were reviewed and synthesized to describe participatory development of the project.

Results: Several challenges were identified including: discussing sexual health interventions for preteens with communities; developing a culturally appropriate research design; managing costs of conducting research in remote and culturally distinct tribal communities; and building research infrastructure of partner organizations.

Project TEACH: A Capacity-Building Training Program for Community-Based Organizations and Public Health Agencies.

Project TEACH (Teaching Equity to Advance Community Health) is a capacity-building training program to empower community-based organizations and regional public health agencies to develop data-driven, evidence-based, outcomes-focused public health interventions. TEACH delivers training modules on topics such as logic models, health data, social determinants of health, evidence-based interventions, and program evaluation. Cohorts of 7 to 12 community-based organizations and regional public health agencies in each of the 6 Colorado Area Health Education Centers service areas participate in a 2-day training program tailored to their specific needs.

Effect of community affluence on the association between individual socioeconomic status and cardiovascular disease risk factors, Colorado, 2007-2008.

We assessed the hypothesis that community affluence modifies the association between individual socioeconomic status (SES) and 6 cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors: diabetes, hypertension, physical inactivity, obesity, smoking, and poor nutrition. We stratified data from the Colorado Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System for 2007 and 2008 by individual SES and 3 categories of community affluence (median household income of county). People who had a low SES seemed to benefit from residing in high-affluence communities.