The Community Shadow Project
Family Intervention of Youth AOD in Indian Communities
September 1999–March 2010
Principal Investigator: Dr. Alison Boyd-Ball
Co-Investigators: Dr. Kate Kavanagh, Dr. Tom Dishion
Funded by: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health
The Community Shadow Project is continuing to study the benefits of engaging American Indian families and their adolescent youth in a family-based intervention (EcoFIT) developed by Dishion and colleagues (Dishion & Kavanagh, 2003; Dishion & Stormshak, 2007). The project focuses on tribal-specific, culturally sensitive family engagement strategies; establishes resource centers in tribal mental health centers; implements EcoFIT within the tribes’ behavioral health programs; and evaluates the benefits of the intervention.
The research program is adapting, developing, and testing community-based intervention services that are appropriate for the culture, resources, and needs of three AI communities in the Pacific Northwest.
The current project uses a multiple baseline design that allows the research team to specifically tailor a menu of family interventions to the strengths and uniqueness of each of the three communities and to collaborate with community members to develop a family-centered intervention infrastructure, the family resource center. The team works with tribal consultants and focus groups drawn from each tribe to ensure cultural appropriateness of intervention strategies and methods, as well as respect for tribal traditions and patterns of values and attitudes.
The research team is continuing the work of the previous Shadow Project, which focused on the adaptation of the Adolescent Transitions Program (ATP; Dishion & Kavanagh, 2003) to the AI community, and has worked with a treatment facility to develop clinical experience, a database of the needs of AI adolescents and families with a history of AOD use, and culturally sensitive measurement and research protocols to examine the effectiveness of the ATP adaptation.
This study is based on a pilot project (Shadow Project) funded by NIAAA during which 60 American Indian (AI) adolescents involved in residential treatment for alcohol and drug problems were provided with additional family-centered support. Dr. Tom Dishion was PI and Dr. Alison Boyd-Ball was co-PI for this project.
2008 Progress
A family resource center (FRC) has been in full operation at Tribal Sites 1 and 2. The Community Shadow Project team has completed the first wave of assessments, the family intervention, and a year-long follow-up at Site 1. An exit interview will be carried out in December 2008 with 92 youth and 54 caregivers. The team used the information gained there to shape an engagement strategy for Tribal Site 2, where The Shadow Project team has completed the first wave of assessments with 90 youth and 53 caregivers. An FRC was established and the family intervention phase is underway. The research team is in the startup phase with Tribal Site 3, and tribal-specific, culturally sensitive family engagement strategies are being developed and implemented through the use of focus groups consisting of parents and tribal service providers. Assessments and analyses will continue at Sites 1 and 2 to further evaluate the benefit of family-centered intervention in American Indian communities.
2009 Progress
By March 2009 we had collected three waves of school survey data from both cohorts of youth and had started Wave 4 data collection with Cohort 1. Wave 2 Family Check-Ups with most of the Cohort 2 families will be completed before the end of the 2008–2009 school year. In summer and fall 2009 Cohort 1 families will receive Wave 3 of the Family Check-Up.
