Research That Matters (January 17 - 20, 2008)

Background: This exploratory study utilized focus groups as Talking Circles (TC's) to elicit American Indian views of gambling, smoking, alcohol and drug use on a Great Lakes Reservation. TC's are a traditional method of American Indian group communication. This method is appropriate as a historically suspicious relationship has existed between Indians and researchers. To build trust TC's and an emergent design approach, where initial group composition and strategy were planned but subsequent groups evolved from tribal group members' input, enabled them to become full participants in the groups, in group design, and empowered them.

Methods: The 8 groups of purposively selected tribal members included 30 females and 19 males (12-78 years of age) and lasted 2 hours. In this emergent design the investigator solicited information from elders, the research associate and the observer to determine future group composition and strategy. To ensure coverage of topics, a semi-structured guide of gambling, smoking, alcohol and drug use questions, was used in all groups. In the initial TC elders requested changes in the composition of future groups, including: the inclusion of children, participant assignment to groups according to age and gender, and purposive selection of some tribal members to participate in more than one group. A female elder participated in each TC to act as historian and guide. Groups were recorded and participants completed a demographic questionnaire.

Results: By teaming an emergent design approach with the Indian tradition of TC's participants were empowered to design groups as TC's and fully engage in the data collection process. Groups evolved from those in which younger participants were unfamiliar with TC's, and elders engaged in lecturing them, to groups in which the elders told traditional stories of reservation gambling and substance use, enabling younger participants to become more engaged in the TC dynamic. Allowing members to participate in more than one group led previously quiet participants to become more comfortable talking in subsequent groups. The PI and participants discovered that TC's were useful in conceptualizing a substance abuse intervention. One group evolved when younger participants requested their own group with the investigator to talk about their prescription drug use. During this group TC's were discussed as an intervention strategy. Use of TC's for this purpose also was discussed with the Tribal Chair after he participated in a TC. The Tribal Chair reported that TC's were being considered as an alternative to incarceration for tribal men.

Implications: Results indicate that collaboratively conducted focus groups as TC's can be a viable data collection method in Indian communities as they enable a return to traditional tribal group communication, empower tribal participants, assist in the development of trust towards research and researchers, and can lead to discussions of intervention strategies for substance abuse on reservations.

The investigator will use these data to develop data collection strategies and substance abuse interventions for use on this and other reservations. This research was funded by the University of Michigan Tobacco Research Network (UMTRN)-Grant # N005455.