Decreasing Urban American Indian Parents' Substance Use and Adolescents' Risky Behavior through the Culturally-Grounded Parenting Intervention, Parenting in 2 Worlds

American Indian (AI) adolescents have higher rates of alcohol and other drug use than their non-AI counterparts. Parent substance use may be the most powerful influence on adolescent substance use initiation, because parents define behavioral norms for the adolescent. If parents themselves use, they may reinforce and encourage adolescent use through their own behavior. In response, researchers and practitioners have begun efforts to effectively strengthen protective factors and reduce risk for adolescent problem behaviors. Parenting programs can have positive effects on the acquisition of parenting skills and are some of the most effective ways of impacting youth risk behaviors. Parenting programs that include consequences of substance use and prepare parents for sensitive conversations with their adolescent may be effective at reducing both parental substance as well as youth risky behaviors. This purpose of this presentation is to test if the culturally-specific parenting intervention, Parenting in 2 Worlds (P2W), can reduce parental substance use and reports of adolescent risky behavior in urban AI families.

Data come from a randomized control trial of 575 urban AI parents of adolescents (ages 10-17) living three urban Arizona cities.  Collaborating with urban Indian centers, parents were randomized into P2W or a comparison family health curriculum. Pretests occurred in the first workshop, with post-tests following 10 weeks later during the last workshop.  Tests of the efficacy of P2W versus comparison group were analyzed through baseline adjusted regression models in Mplus using FIML estimation to adjust for attrition, including random effects (site, facilitator), and controlling dosage (# workshops attended).

Parents receiving P2W, compared to the comparison family health curriculum, reported a significant decrease in frequency of substance use (B=-.077, p<.01). This finding was particularly salient for heavy episodic drinking (B=-.059, p<.05). In addition, compared to the comparison group, parents in P2W reported a significant decrease in their adolescents’ antisocial behavior (B=-.090, p<.01) and marginal increases in prosocial behavior (B=.056, p<.10).

 P2W is a culturally grounded parenting intervention that can strengthen protective factors among urban AI families – reducing parent substance use and youth risky behaviors. These results indicate P2W can be effective at changing various aspects of parenting practices– an important mechanism through which we may expect change in youth risk behavior.