title: Sense of Belonging in School as a Protective Factor Against Drug Abuse Among Native American Urban Adolescents.
abstract: This article presents the results of a study conducted with 243 Native American students who were part of a multi-ethnic sample of adolescents attending middle school in a large urban center in the Southwest region of the United States. Native adolescents who felt a stronger sense of belonging in their school were found to report a lower lifetime use of alcohol and cigarettes, lower cigarette and marijuana use in the previous month, lower frequency of current use of these substances, fewer substances ever used, and a later age of initiation into drug use than other Native students. Research implications are discussed in relationship to school environment, culturally-grounded prevention curricula, and school social work practice.
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, School of Social Work.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Napoli
authors.forename: Flavio Francisco
authors.initials: FF
authors.lastname: Marsiglia
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kulis