Culturally Sensitive Substance Abuse Intervention for Hispanic and African American Adolescents: Empirical Examples From the Alcohol Treatment Targeting Adolescents in Need (ATTAIN) Project

• NCJ Number: 207810
• Journal: Addiction Volume: 99 Issue: 2 Dated: November 2004 Pages: 140-150
• Author(s): Andres G. Gil; Eric F. Wagner; Jonathan G. Tubman
• Editor(s): Cherry Lowman
• Date Published: November 2004
• Length: 11 pages
• Grant Number(s): R01AA12180
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Health and Human Services
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper presents findings from an analysis that examined the effects of the Alcohol Treatment Targeting Adolescents in Need (ATTAIN) project with minority juvenile offenders and the impact of cultural factors on baseline alcohol and other drug use among Hispanic and African-American youth.

Abstract

Little is known about variations in intervention effectiveness across ethnic or cultural groups, specifically adolescent alcohol and other drug (AOD) use interventions. This paper presents preliminary analyses that examined: (1) the degree to which cultural mistrust and perceived discrimination are related to baseline AOD use among African-American, substance-abusing juvenile offenders; (2) the degree to which acculturation and acculturation stress are related to AOD use among Hispanic substance-abusing juvenile offenders; and (3) how acculturation and acculturation stress may affect response to treatment among Hispanic youth. Study participants consisted of 213, 14 to 19 year old juvenile offenders with AOD problems (128 = United States-born Hispanics, 45 = foreign-born Hispanics, and 40 = African-Americans) who had been referred to the Alcohol Treatment Targeting Adolescents in Need (ATTAIN) project for substance abuse treatment. Alcohol and marijuana use at baseline and post-intervention were measured using the Timeline Followback interview (TLFB). The findings reported evidence that it is possible to develop interventions that can be implemented in multi-cultural settings and that can be delivered across various ethnic groups. Secondly, epidemiological literature demonstrated that within the Hispanic population, foreign-born adolescents are less likely to engage in substance use than their second-generation United States-born counterparts. Lastly, the findings demonstrated that the relations found with community populations between acculturation, perceived discrimination, ethnic orientation, and cultural mistrust and AOD use also applied to clinical populations, specifically these cultural factors influence treatment outcome. Tables, references