The Development and Preliminary Findings of the Ho‘Ouna Pono Drug Prevention Curriculum

Introduction: Recently, there has been a national emphasis on the health and well-being of Pacific Islanders, yet, research has lagged in terms of identifying the social and environmental contributors to health disparities of these populations, and the interventions necessary to address them. Further, while intervention research has begun to identify principles and practices of cultural adaptations, much of this research is focused on established treatments (e.g., cognitive behavioral therapy) with clinical samples. Much is still unknown regarding the adaptational process of prevention interventions with non-clinical samples.

To fill this scientific gap, this paper describes a culturally grounded model for the development of a prevention intervention for rural Native Hawaiian youth. The program (Ho‘ouna Pono) evolved from a mixed methods, pre-prevention study within rural Hawaiian communities, and the methodology can be used to develop interventions for other indigenous youth populations.

 

Methods: The program was developed within a 5-phase model. In Phase 1, focus groups were used to assess the environmental demands for substance use within rural Hawaiian communities. In Phase 2, these qualitative findings were translated to an inventory of drug-related problem situations, which were validated with a large sample of rural Hawaiian youth. In Phase 3, Hawaiian youth participated in brainstorming/activity groups to identify socially competent responses to drug-related problem situations. In Phase 4, community stakeholders further validated the situations and responses. In Phase 5, the findings were translated to culturally grounded drug prevention components and videos.

Results: We will present a summary of findings from the pre-prevention study, Ho‘ouna Pono curriculum content, and some preliminary (i.e., pre- and post-test) findings from the program.

Conclusions: This presentation illustrates one model for the development of culturally grounded drug prevention, with particular relevance to indigenous youth.