Facilitating Community Participants' Research Engagement: Community Members' Perceptions of Community-based Research.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the perspectives of community participants about engaging in community-based participatory research, and then to use the information to develop a model to depict the community participants' perceptions of interfacing with academic researchers. METHOD: A diverse group of Native Hawaiian community-dwelling participants engaged in open-ended and semi-structured focus group interviews, addressing community members' perceptions of community-based participatory research. RESULTS: Three key areas were identified: (1) reciprocal trustable is needed; (2) perceptions about the purpose, research intent and expectations; (3) expectations of roles and responsibilities of the researcher(s). A model showing the reciprocity between the academic partner and the community partner is needed to establish the full CBPR process is proposed. CONCLUSION: The three themes implied the community participants' expectations of reciprocal relationships. The dimensions influencing community members' perceptions of community-based research need to be taken into account when academic researchers interface with community participants. Successful community-based participatory research approaches for addressing the challenges of translating research findings into community actions is enhanced when the expectations of community members are taken into account.

Building family capacity for Native Hawaiian women with breast cancer.

Native Hawaiian women have the highest breast cancer incidence and mortality rates when compared with other large ethnic groups in Hawai'i. Like other women, they rely on the support of their families as co-survivors. This project explored the feasibility and effects of a culturally tailored educational intervention designed to build family capacity by improving the knowledge and skills of the woman and her family in dealing with breast cancer, particularly in the latter stage of recovery care. Twenty-nine Native Hawaiian women with breast cancer, along with a close family member, were randomly assigned to the intervention (n = 15) or a wait-list control group (n = 14). The authors assessed the knowledge, self-efficacy, and coping skills of women and their family members and the recovery care behaviors of the women at baseline and at four months (after the intervention or control period). The intervention group made significant improvements in self-efficacy and coping; the wait-list control group did not. Evaluation of the intervention suggests that it was well received by participants. This work has relevance for social workers wanting to design and test culturally appropriate interventions for minority groups.