Adapting the "be Under Your Own Influence" Campaign for American Indian Youth

Introduction. The Be Under Your Own Influence (BUYOI) communications campaign has been found to be effective in reducing uptake of marijuana among youth in multi-ethnic communities. BUYOI messages emphasize non-use as an expression of personal identity and the consistency of non-use with youth aspirations. In this paper, we report findings from formative research conducted to adapt this campaign to reach 7^thgraders in American Indian (AI) communities.

Methods. To ensure the BUYOI campaign’s visual and message strategy would resonate and reflect the experiences of AI adolescents, two formative research projects were conducted. Six focus groups were conducted with 7^thgraders, the priority group (half with girls and half with boys). Participants discussed general questions about their current and future lives and specific questions on campaign copy and images.

A Photovoice methodology was used with 11^th grade students who served as BUYOI Ambassadors to the 7^thgraders. Photovoice encourages participants to document and share their impressions through photographic imagery. Each participant was given three disposable cameras, with one labeled “What or who inspires you to live drug and alcohol free?”, another “What challenges you to live drug and alcohol free?”, and the third, “What makes you your own individual?” At completion, individual debriefing interviews were conducted, and thematic analysis was performed.

Results.  Seventh graders talked about their desire to leave the reservation, but felt conflict in leaving their families and wanting to “help” their people. All students believed drugs and alcohol were a challenge to achieving their goals and had been impacted by use in some way. The ad images preferred were those of cultural activities/ceremonies, nature, and sports. Copy identified as most liked/believable accompanied headlines such as “History Makers”, “Stronger Faster”, and “Independent Individual”. Photovoice themes identified for “what inspires you” consisted of family, giving back to community, friends who have graduated, and passions (basketball and nature). “What makes you your own individual” themes included personal style, passions/hobbies, and the land. Perceived challenges included peers and the community environment.

Discussion. The formative research indicated that the themes of the BUYOI campaign are applicable to AI youth, with changes to imaging and copy to reflect AI youth experiences. In addition, AI culture and the natural world were important to many of the youth and were subsequently incorporated into campaign materials. These results suggest that prevention programs found to be effective with other populations can be adapted for use with AI youth.

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