Maxwell-Lutz Community Impact Award

Identifying Challenges and Opportunities for Designing Culturally Relevant Behavioral Health Interventions for Hopi Youth

Students: Shelby Hagermman-CEIAS, Simone Richardson-SBS
Faculty: Dr. Alisse Ali-Jospeh-SBS, Dr. Darold Joseph-COE, Dr. Morgan Vigil-Hayes-CEIAS

Native American youth ages 10-24 years old experience significant behavioral health disparities with a suicide rate a significantly greater than any other population. Analysis of traditional behavioral health interventions and treatments reveal that they may not be accessible due to geographic distance and cost. Evaluations of existing interventions reveal that cultural relevance is critical to the success of interventions in Native American populations. As access to smartphones increases, mobile health (mHealth) interventions are gaining popularity as a new means for promoting behavioral health and well-being that overcome many of the geographic and cost barriers associated with traditional interventions. However, researchers have yet to investigate whether these interventions address the cultural relevance component that is critical to intervention success in Native American youth. In this project, students and faculty will with the Hopi Youth Opportunity Initiative to employ a Participatory Action Research approach to answer the following questions:

• How are behavioral health mHealth apps perceived by Hopi youth and and community stakeholders with respect to cultural relevance?
• How do existing health mHealth apps align with or deviate from Hopi values?

The team will conduct a series of focus groups and interviews with Hopi youth and community stakeholders centered on participants’ perspectives on an experiences with existing behavioral mHealth apps. In particular, they will focus on having participants discuss how existing behavioral mHealth interventions align with, deviate from, or ignore their cultural values. The team will use a grounded theory approach to identify common themes surrounding Hopi perspectives on the design of behavioral health apps. Using the common these as a framework, they will survey existing mHealth behavioral health apps and identify how they succeed or fail to be culturally relevant to Native American youth and their larger networks. Importantly, this survey will enable future interdisciplinary teams to co-design more effective mHealth interventions.

Submit your proposal (as defined below) starting  on November 13, 2020 by completing an online application form. Applications are due on February 5, 2021.

Please have the following information available before you attempt to post your application:

1. Project information:

• Project title
• Project outline
• Describe the project. (300 words or less)
• List the faculty leader(s) of this project and contact information.
• List the top three goals of this project and how the success of each will be measured.
• If this project is a standalone project, describe its intended substantial and verifiable benefit for the community. (200 words or less)
• If this project is intended to support another ongoing project or thesis, describe the project and how these funds would make a significant difference to the success of the other project and the intended substantial and verifiable benefit for the community that it or the other project would make. (200 words or less)

2. Student information:

• List the role of students in the project
• Provide the name, major and class year (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior or graduate student) of the students participating in the proposed project.
• If this project supplements another ongoing project or thesis, provide the title of the project or thesis and the name of the principals and departments involved.

3. Budget information:

• Provide general budget outline for project including the total amount requested including justification and a breakdown by categories. Allowable categories include student wage/graduate stipend (limited to 60% of the request), equipment, supplies, and travel.

4. Review process

Proposals will be reviewed by a selection committee comprised of one representative each from SBS, CEIAS, and CEFNS and one community member.

5. Post award process

• Student participants to present the results of the project and what they learned at an event or meeting such as the Northern Arizona University Undergraduate Expo; and
• Faculty participants will prepare a post-project report which includes an evaluation of its outcomes with relation to proposed community impacts and project goals, and a complete list of expenditures. This report will be distributed to the selection committee and Founders within 90 days of the completed funding period.

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