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What We Do

The Tri-Ethnic Center for Prevention Research (TEC) has more than a five-decade history, dating back to the late 1960’s.  During this period of time, the Center, as part of the Department of Psychology at Colorado State University, has investigated various issues of social importance, always with a view to understanding how they impact disadvantaged populations. Utilizing broad-based, multidisciplinary and multifaceted research methods, Center faculty and staff have investigated community dynamics and the social, psychological and cultural factors that contribute to social problems such as substance use, delinquency, dropout, intimate partner violence, HIV/AIDS, anger and anger management, school violence, and environmental and other social problems. Since 1974, our work has focused on substance use among youth, with continuing support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse.  Our special emphasis is to track substance use epidemiology among American Indian youth, to understand the etiology of use, and to develop effective substance use prevention interventions for Indigenous youth.

Research & Community

  • Our Youth, Our Future Study: Research tracking the substance use of American Indian (AI) youth who live on or near AI reservations since 1974.
  • Community Readiness Model: To maximize chances for success, the Community Readiness Model offers tools to measure readiness and to develop stage-appropriate strategies.

Our Youth, Our Future Study

The Tri-Ethnic Center for Prevention Research (TEC) has been funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to track the substance use of American Indian (AI) youth who live on or near AI reservations since 1974. Over more than 40 years, our data, along with that of others show consistently that among all U.S. ethnic minority groups, AI adolescents report the highest levels of substance use. Moreover, reservation-based AI youth have been found to have higher substance use and other related problems than non-reservation AI youth. Through systematic tracking of annual substance use of AI youth, we have been able to identify key trends that have marked significant reductions in levels of use as well as periods of marked increase. Ongoing surveillance allows continued monitoring of significant trends that are critical for targeting both prevention and intervention efforts, both being vitally important given that substance use related problems, such as academic failure, delinquency, violent criminal behavior, suicidality, and especially for AI males, drinking-related arrests and alcohol-related mortality, are disproportionately high on most reservations.

In addition to our annual tracking of substance use epidemiology, we have also investigated the etiology of AI adolescent substance use and associated correlates of use, along with theory development and other topics relevant to the investigation of substance use among this group. Our investigations of the etiology and associated correlates of use have shown that there are both commonalities and differences in substance use etiology and risk between AI and non-AI youth, leading to theory development and other topics relevant to the investigation of substance use among this and other ethnic minority groups.

Community Readiness Model

The Community Readiness Model was developed at the Tri-Ethnic Center to assess how ready a community is to address an issue. The basic premise is that matching an intervention to a community’s level of readiness is absolutely essential for success. Efforts that are too ambitious are likely to fail because community members will not be ready or able to respond. To maximize chances for success, the Community Readiness Model offers tools to measure readiness and to develop stage-appropriate strategies.

Message from the Director

As we are all doing are best to navigate the realities of Covid-19, there are a number of disadvantaged groups among us for whom this struggle is amplified by already existing health disparities.  Near the top of this list, if not at the top, of these highly vulnerable groups are American Indians.  They are already more prone to serious health conditions (heart disease, diabetes, autoimmune disorders), which make them highly susceptible to respiratory illness (the primary killer of Covid-19).  When these conditions are combined with the understaffed and under-resourced Indian Health Service, this makes for a deadly perfect storm.

Our Center has tracked, for multiple decades, another serious problem among reservation-based American Indians – adolescent substance use. Their rates of use have outpaced all other ethnic/racial groups of adolescents in the U.S.  What is already a pressing public health issue for American Indian communities nationwide is likely only to be compounded by the current pandemic.  As medical facilities become even more stressed, as already dire economic conditions worsen, and as Native families deal with yet another trauma – the loss of family members, we fear that substance use problems will worsen.  As a nation, as practitioners, as a community of researchers, and as fellow brothers and sisters on this struggling planet of ours, we must do all we can to lessen the impact of this frightening disease on the most vulnerable among us.

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