Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Transcult Psychiatry. 2024 Jun;61(3):351-360. doi: 10.1177/13634615231191999. Epub 2023 Oct 5.
Heavy drinking and smoking have been found to be among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality within Indigenous youth in North America. The focus of this study was to examine the relative roles of cultural identity, parent-child communication about the harms of substance use (SU), and perception about peers' opinions on heavy drinking and cigarette smoking among Indigenous youth. Strong Indigenous cultural identity, parent-child communication about SU, and affiliation with peers who do not use and/or who disapprove of substance use were all expected to reduce risk for heavy drinking and smoking. Substance use beliefs were hypothesized to mediate these effects. Youth ( = 117; = 14.07; grades 6-11) from two Indigenous communities in Quebec completed self-reports. Consistent with the hypotheses, strong cultural identity predicted increased negative beliefs about substance use, which predicted reduced drinking and smoking. Similarly, affiliating with peers who did not use alcohol predicted decreased positive beliefs about alcohol use, which predicted reduced drinking. Affiliating with peers who did not smoke cigarettes predicted reduced cigarette smoking. Parental influences were not supported in this model. Intervention strategies may benefit from targeting cultural identity, peer groups, and substance use beliefs among Indigenous youth.
大量饮酒和吸烟已被发现是导致北美原住民青年发病和死亡的主要原因之一。本研究的重点是检验文化认同、父母与子女之间关于药物使用危害的沟通，以及对同伴对大量饮酒和吸烟的看法的看法在原住民青年中的相对作用。强烈的原住民文化认同、父母与子女之间关于药物使用的沟通，以及与不使用和/或不赞成药物使用的同伴的关系，都有望降低大量饮酒和吸烟的风险。药物使用信念被假设为调节这些影响。来自魁北克两个原住民社区的青少年（ = 117； = 14.07；6-11 年级）完成了自我报告。与假设一致，强烈的文化认同预测了对药物使用的负面信念增加，这预示着饮酒和吸烟减少。同样，与不使用酒精的同伴结盟预测了对酒精使用的积极信念减少，这预示着饮酒减少。与不吸烟的同伴结盟预测了吸烟减少。在这个模型中，父母的影响没有得到支持。干预策略可能受益于针对原住民青年的文化认同、同伴群体和药物使用信念。
