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Purpose: In the United states, few substance abuse prevention approaches have proven effective in reducing substance use among adolescents in general, and even fewer have been evaluated for their effectiveness with ethnic minority youths (Forgey, Schinke, and Cole, 1997; Gorman, 1998). In addition most drug prevention programs are created by and for European Americans and tested primarily on minority youth. It has been suggested that the failure of many prevention programs can be traced to their lack of cultural sensitivity (Hanson, Miller, & Leukefeld, 1995; Palinkas, et.al., 1996). Most drug resistance programs are evaluated in traditional school settings, excluding the youth at highest risk for drug use/abuse. Therefore, this study will take place in community settings wit youth from high-risk neighborhoods and high-risk environmental conditions. Research Aims: To determine the effectiveness of the prevention videos as tools with youths in Texas, to explore the relevant culture and related resistance strategies (as categorized by the videos depicting Refuse, Explain, Avoid, and Leave strategies or REAL) of Texas youth and to explore resistance strategies among youth in a setting other than schools (i.e. community centers, alternative learning programs, and homeless centers and shelters). This project will serve as a pilot to a follow-up study addressing culturally grounded drug resistance strategies with a sample of youth throughout the United States. Methods:
This exploratory study focuses on the comparison between Texas youth in
varied community settings with regards to identification with the drug
resistance strategies and videos as well as the unique characteristics
of high risk youth outside of the school setting. The methods include
quantitative pretest/posttest design as well as qualitative focus groups
before and after the intervention.
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