Cultural adaptation of a universal addiction prevention program for aboriginal innus children

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Reference

*Cotton J-C, Laventure M, Joly J. (2016). Cultural adaptation of a universal addiction prevention program for aboriginal innus children. Drogue, Santé et Société. 15(2): 77-99.

Abstract

Many Canadian studies emphasise the lack of adapted programs for Aboriginal people in the field of addictions, especially in prevention for the young people living in a community. Using the model of cultural adaptation by Kumpfer et al. (2008) and an incorporated mixed study design, this study aims to describe the in-depth adaptation of the addiction prevention program System d for students from an Innu school in Quebec. For the qualitative component, different actors of the Aboriginal community were consulted (one school principal, two teachers, two school educators, six animators and nine parents) in order to adapt the program in depth. For the quantitative component, the logbooks allowed, on one hand, to target the activities carried out and, on the other hand, to determine their usefulness as perceived by the animators and the teachers of the animated activities. The main adjustments made to the program concern the duration of the workshops, the teaching methods used to present the concepts and the integration of Aboriginal cultural references. In light of these results, it is recommended to continue the cultural adaptation of the program and then validate its cultural relevance in other Aboriginal schools and evaluate its effectiveness.

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