Using focus groups to gather American Indian views of gambling, alcohol, tobacco, and drug use on a reservation

This exploratory study was conducted using focus groups to better understand American Indian views of gambling, alcohol, smoking, and drug use on a Great Lakes Indian Reservation. Respondents were tribal members between the ages of 12 and 85 years of age. Specific aims were: 1) to have tribal members' describe their views of gambling, alcohol, smoking, and drug use on the reservation, and 2) to use this information to generate hypotheses for a future mixed method study of gambling, alcohol, smoking, and drug use on reservations. The 10 focus groups were 1-2 hours duration (N=60). An “emergent design” approach to conducting the groups was utilized to allow elders to be full participants in the design of the study. The first group was comprised of elders who provided input on group composition, question content, and moderating style for the 9 subsequent groups. Focus groups are very appropriate as throughout history Indians have relied on oral communication (talking circles) to tell their stories. Results indicate that 1) future research needs to include mental health and its relationship to gambling, alcohol, smoking, and drug use on reservations, 2) studies that utilize a mixed methods approach (including focus groups and/or interviews) maximize researchers' ability to obtain relevant information on Indian views of social problems, and 3) there is a need to provide intervention programs that include input from Indians on how to better address social problems on reservations. This research was funded by the University of Michigan Tobacco Research Network (UMTRN) Grant # N005455.