Qualitative interviews

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Background: Within the context of a growing sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) population in Australia, the problem of alcohol and other drug (AOD) use by SSA youth has been reported in recent studies. Although evidence from other sociocultural contexts indicate that SSA cultural values could be protective against youth AOD use, not much is known about what pertains in the Australian context. The core justification for conducting this study is grounded on the awareness that people may perceive and conceptualize their heritage cultural values based on the sociocultural context in which they find themselves (Akkuş et al., 2017).
Objectives: To explore SSA cultural values from the perspectives of SSA Australians, and to explore how these cultural values may influence AOD use among SSA Australian youth.
Method: A convenience sample of 18 SSA Australians in Perth which comprised 9 community leaders (aged 35 – 74; 4 females, 5 males) and 9 youth (aged 18 – 30; 4 females, 5 males) were engaged in one-on-one interviews. The participants were from diverse SSA backgrounds including Nigeria, Kenya, South Sudan, Zimbabwe, Guinea, Sierra Leon, Ghana, Liberia, Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, and Zambia.
Results: We found that SSA cultural values among our participants revolve around communality, and they include family, respect, and tradition. While the predisposing risk factors for SSA youth AOD were associated with communality and family, the identified protective factors are associated with all the identified cultural values.
Conclusion: There is the need for further studies to understand how SSA Australian youth adapt their SSA heritage cultural values in AOD use within the Australian sociocultural context.