Publications by authors named "Stephen S Kulis"

Unlabelled: The large majority (over 70%) of American Indian adolescents who reside in cities rather than tribal lands or rural areas report relatively earlier onset of substance use and more harmful associated health effects, compared to their non-Native peers.

Objective: This study investigated multilevel ecodevelopmental influences on empirically derived patterns of substance use among urban American Indian adolescents.

Method: Data came from 8th, 10th, and 12th grade American Indian adolescents ( = 2,407) in metropolitan areas of Arizona.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: This study examined the implementation determinants of a culturally grounded, school-based drug prevention curriculum in rural Hawai'i. Test development and validation procedures were used to examine the impact of implementation barriers and facilitators of the curriculum in public or charter middle/intermediate schools on Hawai'i Island.

Method: A five-phase, mixed-methods approach toward test development and validation was used.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This article reports on the findings of a study of the relationship between transnational experiences in the United States (US) and the use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana among 7th grade students ( = 1418). The study was guided by a cross-national framework for research on immigrant health and assessed the accumulation of risk factors for transnational adolescents. Data came from a survey conducted in 2017 in Nogales, Mexico.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Urban American Indian adolescents face higher risks of early sexual activity, teen pregnancies, and STIs compared to their non-Native peers, and often lack adequate sexual health information.
  • A study conducted in three Arizona cities involving 585 parents tested a culturally tailored parenting program called Parenting in 2 Worlds (P2W) against a non-tailored family health intervention.
  • Results showed that P2W significantly improved parent-adolescent communication about sexual health and decision-making, with notable short-term benefits for cross-gender communication and long-term benefits for both mothers and fathers regarding their sons.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study assessed whether culturally and linguistically adapted versions of the US adolescent substance use prevention program, keepin' it REAL (kiREAL), effectively increased drug resistance strategies among Mexican students and if this led to reduced substance use.
  • Over 5,500 middle school students were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a culturally adapted version (MREAL), a linguistically adapted version (kiREAL-S), and a control group, with data collected at multiple intervals.
  • Results showed that both MREAL and kiREAL-S improved the use of drug resistance strategies, but only MREAL led to a significant reduction in the frequency of substance use behaviors, highlighting the importance of cultural adaptation in prevention programs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This article reports on effects of two earthquakes in Mexico on adolescents attending middle school. The earthquakes struck in close succession during the implementation of a school-based prevention program, providing an opportunity to assess emotional distress due to the earthquakes and whether the life skills taught in the program affected how students coped with the natural disaster. The objectives were to (1) evaluate the earthquakes' impact on students' distress; (2) assess if distress is associated with internalizing symptomology and externalizing behaviors; and (3) investigate if students receiving the original and adapted versions of the intervention coped better with the events.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Does exposure to neighborhood poverty from adolescence to early adulthood have differential influence on sleep duration across racial/ethnic groups? We used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health that consisted of 6756 Non-Hispanic (NH) White respondents, 2471 NH Black respondents, and 2000 Hispanic respondents and multinomial logistic models to predict respondent reported sleep duration based on exposure to neighborhood poverty during adolescence and adulthood. Results indicated that neighborhood poverty exposure was related to short sleep duration among NH White respondents only. We discuss these results in relation to coping, resilience, and White psychology.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Conclusions: Although larger trials with a more representative sample of schools are needed, the study suggests the potential for kiR as an effective approach for substance use prevention in Kenya.

Method: A convenience sample of primary schools in metropolitan Nairobi was randomized into an intervention or control group. Teachers in intervention schools were trained to deliver the kiR curriculum with fidelity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • This study examines the relationship between drug use and violence in urban settings, particularly focusing on how students might use violence to refuse drug offers.
  • Researchers gathered data from surveys and focus groups involving lower secondary students in three Mexican metropolitan areas.
  • Findings suggest that students who resort to violence to reject drug offers have a more troubled psychosocial background, with exposure to neighborhood violence being a key factor.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A binational team of investigators culturally adapted, implemented, and tested the efficacy in Mexico of keepin' it REAL, a US-designed prevention intervention for youth. This article reports on the social validity of the adapted intervention by assessing its feasibility, acceptability, and utility, as perceived by participating middle school students, teachers/implementers, and school administrators. Middle schools (N = 36) were randomly assigned to (1) the culturally adapted version for Mexico (Mantente REAL), (2) the original intervention from the USA (keepin' it REAL) translated into Spanish, or (3) a control condition (treatment as usual).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

When testing longitudinal effects of parenting practices on adolescent adjustment, an integrated consideration of externalizing and internalizing behaviors is a gap in research. This study analyzed how parental support and parental knowledge directly and indirectly influence both antisocial behavior and emotional problems. The sample had 642 adolescents aged 12-15 (mean age = 12.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The main objective of the current study is to analyze how the unique perspectives from both parents and children in regards to parental knowledge of the child's whereabouts, activities, and friendships are related to the adolescent's recent substance use four months later. Differences between parents and children, as well as between male and female adolescents are examined. Data come from a Latinx sample (mostly Mexican-origin) of 523 parent-adolescent dyads from Arizona (US) using a multi-informant approach (parent and adolescent reports).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study assesses the efficacy of a version of the keepin' it REAL (kiREAL) substance use prevention curriculum for middle school students that was culturally adapted for Mexico, renamed Mantente REAL (MREAL), and tested in a cluster randomized controlled trial in Mexico's three largest cities. Student participants were in 7th grade in public middle schools (N = 5523, 49% female, mean age = 11.9).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This article reports on a test of a youth substance use prevention program conducted in Nogales-Sonora, a Mexican city on the US border. The study tested the efficacy of a version of the keepin' it REAL curriculum for middle school students that was culturally adapted for Mexico and renamed Mantente REAL. Students in 7th grade classrooms in four public schools participated in the study (N = 1,418, 49% female, mean age = 11.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

According to the theory of planned behavior (TPB), intentions to perform a specific behavior are the result of attitudes, norms, and perceived control, and in turn, intentions and perceived control are the main predictors of the behavior. This study aimed to test the applicability of TPB in predicting alcohol use in normative pre-adolescents. The sample was composed of 755 Spanish adolescents aged 11 to 15 ( = 12.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study reports on the drug use outcomes in an efficacy trial of a culturally grounded, school-based, substance abuse prevention curriculum in rural Hawai'i. The curriculum (Ho'ouna Pono) was developed through a series of pre-prevention and pilot/feasibility studies funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and focuses on culturally relevant drug resistance skills training. The present study used a dynamic wait-listed control group design (Brown, Wyman, Guo, & Pena, 2006), in which cohorts of middle/intermediate public schools on Hawai'i Island were exposed to the curriculum at different time periods over a two-year time frame.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Culturally appropriate, evidence-based prevention programs are seldom available to the growing majority of American Indians (AIs) who now live in cities. Parenting in 2 Worlds (P2W), a culturally grounded parenting intervention, was created to strengthen family functioning and reduce behavioral health risks in urban AI families from diverse tribal backgrounds.

Objectives: This study reports on the AI cultural engagement of the P2W participants as an outcome of the intervention.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Although roughly 70% of the American Indian and Alaska Native (AI) population live in urban areas, research is scarce regarding this population. As a consequence, there is limited understanding about the salient socioenvironmental factors that aid in preventing substance use among urban AI communities. This study utilized a statewide, cross-sectional, school-based survey of urban AI adolescents ( = 2,375) to (a) examine the associations between substance use and risk and promotive factors within the family and peer group, and (b) explore how these associations vary by subgroups (gender, racial/ethnic background, and grade level).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Although substance use and violent behaviors often emerge together in adolescence, and both have similar widely cited causes and negative consequences for development, it remains unclear whether and how they may be linked causally. This study of early adolescents in Mexico's three largest cities tested whether alcohol use and violence perpetration are temporally related, whether their relationship is unidirectional or reciprocal, and whether the relationship differs by gender and the type of violence. The study employed longitudinal data from seventh grade students (N = 4830; M age = 12.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study investigated the associations between traditional gender roles (TGRs) and substance use among early adolescents in Mexico's largest cities. The sample of seventh grade students ( = 4,932) attended 26 public schools in Mexico City, Guadalajara, or Monterrey in 2014. Outcomes included recent alcohol, binge drinking, cigarette and marijuana use, and lifetime poly-substance use; substance-use intentions, norms, attitudes, and expectancies; and substance-use exposure (peer use, offers) and resistance (refusal confidence, refusal skills, and decision-making skills).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This article describes a test in Guatemala City of Mantente REAL, a linguistically adapted version of the keepin' it REAL universal substance use prevention curriculum for early adolescents that teaches culturally grounded drug resistance, risk assessment, and decision making skills. Academic researchers collaborated with a local non-profit to recruit and randomize 12 elementary schools in Guatemala City to intervention and comparison conditions. Regular classroom teachers were trained to deliver the ten-lesson Mantente REAL (MR) manualized curriculum to sixth-grade students.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This article describes a small efficacy trial of the Living in 2 Worlds (L2W) substance use prevention curriculum, a culturally adapted version of keepin' it REAL (kiR) redesigned for urban American Indian (AI) middle school students. Focused on strengthening resiliency and AI cultural engagement, L2W teaches drug resistance skills, decision making, and culturally grounded prevention messages. Using cluster random assignment, the research team randomized three urban middle schools with enrichment classes for AI students.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Unlabelled: A growing majority of American Indian adolescents now live in cities and are at high risk of early and problematic substance use and its negative health effects.

Objective: This study used latent class analysis to empirically derive heterogeneous patterns of substance use among urban American Indian adolescents, examined demographic correlates of the resulting latent classes, and tested for differences among the latent classes in other risk behavior and prosocial outcomes.

Method: The study employed a representative sample of 8th, 10th, and 12th grade American Indian adolescents (n = 2,407) in public or charter schools in metropolitan areas of Arizona in 2012.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Parenting in 2 Worlds (P2W) is a culturally grounded parenting intervention that addresses the distinctive social and cultural worlds of urban American Indian (AI) families. P2W was culturally adapted through community-based participatory research in three urban AI communities with diverse tribal backgrounds. This paper reports the immediate outcomes of P2W in a randomized controlled trial, utilizing data from 575 parents of AI children (ages 10-17).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

To date, the majority of studies examining experiences of racial discrimination among youth use measures initially developed for African American and Latino adults or college students. Few studies have attended to the ways in which discrimination experiences may be unique for Asian American youth, particularly subgroups such as Southeast Asians. The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to describe the development of a racial discrimination measure using community-based participatory research with Cambodian American adolescents and (b) to psychometrically test the measure with respect to validity and reliability.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Synopsis of recent research by authors named "Stephen S Kulis"

  • - Stephen S Kulis's recent research focuses on culturally grounded and evidence-based interventions aimed at preventing substance use and improving youth health, particularly in marginalized populations such as urban American Indian families and adolescents in rural Hawai'i.
  • - His studies utilize mixed-methods approaches and randomized controlled trials to evaluate the effectiveness of programs like "Keepin' it REAL" and "Parenting in 2 Worlds," demonstrating improvements in parent-adolescent communication, cultural engagement, and drug resistance strategies.
  • - Kulis also explores the broader implications of environmental factors, such as neighborhood poverty and urban violence, on substance use and adolescent health, aiming to inform prevention strategies tailored to diverse cultural contexts.