This research was included in the ANROWS Register of Active Research (RAR). The research has concluded and the output has been added to the ANROWS library. Please visit https://www.anrows.org.au/register-of-active-research/ for more information on the RAR.

Project title:
Fighting, alcohol and offending: interventions targeting Aboriginal girls (the YAWG project)

Project description:

This three year qualitative project is a collaboration between the Wungening Aboriginal Corporation and researchers from the National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University (NDRI). It seeks to generate knowledge about Aboriginal girls’ experiences of and attitudes towards fighting, drinking and offending, and to identify intervention points and strategies for preventing the progress of behaviours that increase the potential for negative consequences among this group.

By interviewing Aboriginal girls between the ages of 10-18 years and empowering them to take a lead role in promoting health messages, the project will create a comprehensive picture of Aboriginal girls’ experiences. Findings will inform the development of a training package to improve service provider and community knowledge about issues facing the girls, and provide a framework to guide future health promotion initiatives targeting this group; the package will potentially be transferrable to other settings. It is intended that use of the training package will endure after the life of the project and result in continual improvements in the health status of Aboriginal girls.

Objectives of project:
Focusing on Aboriginal girls and young women (10-18 years) in the Perth metropolitan area, objectives include to:

1. Collect data around girls’ experiences of and involvement in fighting, drinking and offending;
2. Describe the contexts of fighting, consumption of alcohol and offending behaviours;
3. Investigate girls’ motivations around and attitudes towards these behaviours;
4. Document harms experienced as a result of involvement in fighting;
5. Enhance the capacity of Aboriginal girls to take a lead role in developing and promoting health messages;
6. Increase knowledge and capacity of health and other service providers to intervene early in potential negative pathways among Aboriginal girls; and,
7. Evaluate the impact of the intervention developed as part of the project.

Project contact
Dr Mandy Wilson
Curtin University

Funding Body
Healthway

Project start & End Dates
March 2015 – December 2018