The Validation of a School-Based, Culturally Grounded Drug Prevention Curriculum for Rural Hawaiian Youth

Introduction: Increasingly, there has been a national emphasis on the health and well-being of Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders (NHOPIs), yet, research has lagged in terms of developing and testing culturally relevant interventions for these populations, and identifying the real-world contributors and barriers to the implementation, adoption, and sustainability of these interventions in NHOPI communities. Addressing these areas, this qualitative study focused on the validation of an emerging school-based drug prevention curriculum for rural Hawaiian youth.

Methods: Fourteen faculty or staff members, each from a different public or public-charter middle, intermediate, or multi-level school on Hawai‘i Island, were sent a complete draft version of the curriculum (nine lessons and eight videos) two weeks prior to a scheduled interview. Eight of these individuals were asked and agreed to participate in this study. Participants were asked a series of questions focused on the relevance, feasibility, and implementation of the curriculum within their respective schools. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Inter-coder reliability was established using a consensus coding technique. Grounded theory procedures were conducted to examine the curricular content and implementation feasibility of the curriculum in the public schools.

Results: All participants had positive responses to the organization and structure of the curriculum. In particular, participants appreciated the Hawai‘i Island cultural focus interwoven throughout the curriculum’s structure, and its focus on managing significant interpersonal relationships in the context of drug and alcohol refusal. All participants suggested that the curriculum had value at the school level, as it was consistent with school-wide adopted pedagogical approaches that encouraged student interaction and critical thinking. However, several participants also indicated that the curriculum’s narrower focus on a subset of health education (substance abuse prevention), and its inability to fully address Common Core educational standards, could create issues with its system-wide adoption and implementation.

Conclusions: This study used interviews with community-based stakeholders to validate a promising, school-based, culturally relevant prevention curriculum. Through this process, systemic and curricular characteristics were identified that would promote and hinder successful implementation of the curriculum in the public schools in Hawai‘i. Strategies to address barriers to implementation will be discussed. This study has implications for the implementation of similar school-based curricula within rural, indigenous, and/or Pacific Islander communities.