“I No Like Get Caught Using Drugs”: Explanations for Refusal as a Drug-Resistance Strategy for Rural Native Hawaiian Youths

Abstract

This exploratory study examines the use of explanations for refusal as a drug-resistance strategy for rural Native Hawaiian youths. Fourteen gender-specific focus groups were conducted within seven middle or intermediate schools on the Island of Hawai‘i (N = 64). Participants were asked to describe drug-resistance strategies in response to 15 hypothetical culturally specific drug-related problem scenarios developed from earlier research. The findings indicate that variations in the types of explanations used for refusal were based on the type of drug offerer in the associated scenario (i.e., peer/friend, cousin, or parent). Participants also described the rationales for the use of different explanations with different drug offerers. The findings suggest that culturally grounded drug prevention programs for Hawaiian youths should incorporate the use of specific types of explanations for refusal, depending on the youths' relationship to the drug offerer.

Keywords:

• Native Hawaiian
• youth
• drugs
• alcohol
• prevention

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Drug Abuse (K01 DA019884), with supplemental funding from the Trustees' Scholarly Endeavors Program, Hawai‘i Pacific University. The authors wish to acknowledge the support of Mr. Christopher Edwards and Mr. Anthony Spratford in the data collection for this study.

Notes

1. In NVivo, “coverage” refers to the amount of text in a transcript that is devoted to a specific code.