Friday, 14 January 2005 - 8:00 AM

This presentation is part of: Subtance Abuse Treatment

The Racial Identity Scale (RIAS), Spirituality, Personality Factors and Sustance Abuse Among African Origin Men

The purpose of the presentation is to examine the relationship between the Racial Identity Attitude Scale (RIAS, Helms, 1990; Helms and Parham, 1996) and personality scales, and substance abuse over a 12 months period among African Origin men who participated in culturally appropriate comprehensive substance abuse and HIV/AIDS services. The program was unique in providing culturally competent service delivery for effective outreach, engagement and retention of clients who were at high risk for HIV/AIDS. Methods: Subjects were African Origin men, ages 18 years or older, at risk for HIV/AIDS, and able to receive outpatient services. In-depth assessments regarding substance use, HIV risk behavior, mental health and health care utilizations were assessed on 122 men at the baseline, 73 at 6 months and 103 at 12 months. Racial identification was assessed using the Racial Identity Attitude Scale (RIAS). It was hypothesized that the four stages of racial identification (pre-encounter, encounter, immersion, and internalization) were differentially associated with the baseline variables and culturally appropriate treatment outcomes of African American men who participated in the program. Results: At the baseline, the average age of subjects was 39.8 (+ 6.7). Most men were high school graduates (77%). Only 13% of men were employed full or part time, and one third were living in shelters. At baseline, the Pre-encounter Scale was negatively correlated with spiritual belief (r=-.20), self-esteem (r=-.25), self efficacy (r=-.22) and life orientation (r=-.18), while the Internalization Scale was positively correlated with these variables (r=.30, .34, .33 and .32 respectively). No significant correlations were found between the Encounter Scale and Immersion Scales and spiritual belief or practice, self esteem, life orientation or self efficacy at the baseline. Analysis of Variance, repeated measures were utilized to examine alcohol and other substances use between baseline, 6 months and 12 months. The preliminary analyses show that the RAIS sub scales were differentially associated with alcohol and other drug use at the 12 months follow-up. High scores on the "Pre-encounter scale" and "Immersion scale" were associated with higher rates of drinking, intoxication and cocaine use at 12 months follow-up while low scores on these scales at baseline were associated with decrease in the use of these substances. Implications: The results of the study indicate the importance of assessing and incorporating cultural beliefs into social work practice with African Origin substance abusers. The study also emphasizes the importance of culturally competent service deliveries.

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