ACCEPTABILITY OF AN ADAPTED HIV PREVENTION INTERVENTION FOR NATIVE AMERICAN ADOLESCENTS

Relatively few HIV evidence-based interventions (EBIs) among Native Americans have been developed, adapted, evaluated, and/or published in the scientific literature. An adolescent HIV EBI was adapted in three phases: (1) securing input from a Native American Advisory Board; (2) modifying the EBI to be more consistent with Native American culture; and (3) conducing a pilot with 14 Native American adolescents to examine acceptability and cultural congruence between the adapted intervention and the youth's culture based on Likert-scale ratings and a focus group. The adaptations included diverse Native American social and cultural stories that assisted with responsible decision-making skills. The adolescents consistently rated each intervention session as highly acceptable. A difference in knowledge from pre-survey (M = 13.93, SD = 3.08) to post-survey (M = 17.14, SD = 2.25) was statistically significant; t(13) = 4.166, p < .0005. The adapted curriculum did appear culturally responsive based on the pilot test results.