Conducting Drug Abuse Research with Minority Populations

Be a better researcher when studying drug abuse among minorities! Conducting Drug Abuse Research with Minority Populations: Advances and Issues brings you the voices of drug abuse researchers who discuss the most important concerns about conducting research in drug-taking minority populations. In this strategy-based book, you'll find yourself beneficially involved in a discussion of many of the central methodological advances facing researchers today, specifically in the target area of minority communities and their drug-using societies. Conducting Drug Abuse Research with Minority Populations presents crucial recommendations and strategies that will lead you toward unprecedented effectiveness and efficiency when researching this subsection of the world's drug users. In addition, find new ways to involve community members in the research process, and you'll come to more fully understand the impact of cultural values, attitudes, and norms in the drug-taking patterns of minority persons. With this book, you will learn more about: - the importance of advisory boards, gatekeepers, and indigenous workers in this type of research - the crucial role of incentives in recruiting and retaining minority persons in drug abuse studies - focus groups as tools to minimize selection bias of minority subjects - how cultural values may affect research strategies - how research teams can facilitate the collection of data within minority communities Researchers, college educators, and substance abuse practitioners will find that Conducting Drug Abuse Research with Minority Populations improves their efforts to produce more viable data in a much shorter time span.

Bernard Segal

Contents Foreword - PART I. Theoretical Advances and Issues - Structural Strain: An Ecological Paradigm for Studying African American Drug Use - Explaining Race Differences in Adolescent and Young Adult Drug Use: The Role of Racialized Social Systems - Stress Coping as a Conceptual Framework for Studying Alcohol and Drug Use Among Asian American Adolescents - A Model for Explaining Drug Use Behavior Among Hispanic Adolescents - Community Involvement: Advances and Issues - Conducting Drug Abuse Prevention Research in Partnership with Native American Communities: Meeting Challenges Through Collaborative Approaches - Involvement of the Hispanic Community in ATOD Research - Building Bridges: Community Involvement in Drug and HIV Research Among Minority Populations - PART II. Access, Recruitment and Retention: Advances and Issues - Gaining Access to Hidden Populations: Strategies for Gaining Cooperation of Drug Sellers/Dealers and Their Families in Ethnographic Research - Strategies for Accessing and Retaining Asian Drug Users in Research Studies - Obtaining Consent and Other Ethical Issues in the Conduct of Research in American Indian Communities - Retention of Minority Populations in Panel Studies of Drug Use - Reducing Selection Bias in the Use of Focus Groups to Investigate Hidden Populations: The Case of Mexican-American Gang Members from South Texas - Training and Development of Minority and Non-Minority Abuse Researchers and Research Teams: Advances and Issues - Building Effective Research Teams When Conducting Drug Prevention Research with Minority Populations - Constructing and Managing Culturally Competent Research Teams for Community-Based Investigations - Conclusions and Recommendations - Conducting Drug Abuse Research with Minority Populations: Conclusions and Recommendations - Index