Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Deutsch, Arielle R.
• Lustfield, Rebecca
• Hanson, Jessica D.

Titel

Where there’s a will, there’s a way? Strategies to reduce or abstain from alcohol use developed by Northern Plains American Indian women participating in a brief, alcohol‐exposed pregnancy preconceptual intervention

Ist Teil von

• Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research, 2021-11, Vol.45 (11), p.2383-2395

Ort / Verlag

England: Wiley Subscription Services, Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Quelle

Wiley-Blackwell Full Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Background Alcohol‐exposed pregnancy (AEP) is an ongoing concern, especially within low‐resource, high‐risk areas such as rural American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) communities. Brief, preconceptual AEP‐reduction interventions are popular in such areas but have a small impact on alcohol use. Developing a strategic alcohol change plan is a key program component; however, there is little research on strategy selection, especially within contexts that positively or negatively impact selection (e.g., cultural strengths, trauma, collective efficacy within AIAN communities). This study qualitatively analyzed strategies chosen to reduce alcohol use by AIAN women participating in a culturally tailored, brief, preconceptual AEP‐reduction intervention. Methods One hundred‐sixty Northern Plains AIAN women who were participating in a brief AEP‐reduction program developed a plan to accomplish an alcohol reduction/abstention goal at the first and last program sessions. The plan included choosing 1 or more strategies to (1) achieve the goal, (2) mitigate barriers, and (3) use cultural strengths. Qualitative analysis of the data involved thematic open and structured coding of all 3 strategies separately. We also examined how many different themes (different individual strategies) participants reported for each strategy component. Results Most participants reported only 1 strategy (theme) for each of the 3 components. Common goal‐achieving and barrier‐mitigation strategies included positive social supports and avoiding negative or alcohol‐involved social environments. Other strategies involved circular logic (e.g., the strategy to reduce drinking was to drink less). Both traditional and western cultural strengths were reported as important resources, although many participants had no cultural resource strategy. Conclusion Programs aimed at reducing AEPs may need to provide participants more support to develop strong strategies to reduce alcohol use when implemented within areas with high levels of trauma and contextual barriers that can impact strategy selection. Such support could include ways to improve health on both interpersonal and community levels. We qualitatively analyzed strategies to achieve alcohol reduction/abstention goals, developed by Northern Plains American Indian women, who participated in a brief alcohol exposed pregnancy‐reduction intervention. Participants reported a variety of strategies (e.g., avoiding alcohol‐involved social environments, using positive social support), however, popularity of “circular logic” strategies (reduce drinking by drinking less) and lack of multi‐strategy plans (e.g., strategies involved a single action) suggested that participants may need more support to develop effective behavior‐change strategies beyond what common brief interventions provide.