The Evaluation of the Ho'ouna Pono Drug Prevention Curriculum: One-Year Preliminary Findings

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 identifying the social and environmental contributors to health disparities of these populations, and the interventions necessary to address them. To fill this scientific gap, this presentation presents preliminary (1-year) findings of a school-based, culturally grounded drug prevention curriculum for rural Hawaiian youth (Ho‘ouna Pono) that was developed using community-based participatory research principles and practices.

Methods: Ho‘ouna Pono is a 9-lesson, video-enhanced curriculum developed from three multi-phasic, NIDA-funded studies. Thirteen middle, intermediate, or multi-level public schools participated in the study, and were randomly assigned to intervention or wait-listed control conditions. Four hundred and eighty six youth participated in the study. A longitudinal dynamic wait-listed control group design (Brown, Wyman, Guo, & Pena, 2006) was utilized to examine intervention effects. Participating physical education and/or health teachers were trained in the implementation of the curriculum in the classroom through a credit-granting professional development course. Implementation fidelity was monitored virtually through distance learning methods and through a comprehensive portfolio assignment.

Results: Immediate (post-test) and short-term (3-month) follow-up findings illustrated promising findings consistent with past Ho‘ouna Pono pilot evaluation research. Compared with youth in the control schools, baseline adjusted linear models indicated that youth in the intervention schools thought significantly more about the consequences resulting from accepting drugs, such as negative reactions from cousins, at post-test and 3-month follow-up. Further, compared to control youth, intervention youth used non-confrontational drug resistance strategies (e.g., explaining reasons for refusing drug offers, redirecting the conversation away from drug use) more frequently at post-test and 3-month follow-up. The use frequency of these strategies varied based on the relationship of the youth to the drug offerer (i.e., peer/friend, cousin, or parent).

Conclusions: This presentation builds upon past pilot research that illustrated similar findings, and re-affirms the value of prevention curricula that is aligned with Native Hawaiian cultural values and beliefs. More broadly, it demonstrates the importance of using community-based participatory research principles and practices in the development of prevention curricula for rural, indigenous, and/or Pacific Islander youth.