The development and initial validation of the Hawaiian Youth Drug Offers Survey (HYDOS)

This study describes the development and preliminary validation of a survey focused on the most salient situations where drugs and/or alcohol are offered to Native Hawaiian youth in rural communities.

The study used a five-phase approach to test development and validation. In Phase 1 (item generation), survey items were created from a series of focus groups with middle school aged youth (n = 47). In Phase 2 (item refinement and selection), items were edited and reduced to 62 drug-offer situations that were selected for inclusion in the survey. In Phase 3 (item reduction), items were administered to 249 youth from seven middle or intermediate schools in Hawai'i.

Exploratory factor analysis of the Native Hawaiian subsample (n = 194) indicated the presence of three factors accounting for 63% of the variance: peer pressure (23%); family offers and context (21%); and unanticipated drug offers (19%). The survey items differentiated between Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian youth respondents, supporting the validity of the questionnaire. The hypothesized relationship between cultural connectedness and drug offer exposure was not confirmed. Internal consistency of the measure was high.

The survey helps to fill the gap in information related to drug use of Native Hawaiian youth and has implications for the development and assessment of culturally-specific drug prevention programs for these youth.