Description

An adapted and shortened version of the Native Wellness Assessment—referred to as the Cultural Efficacy measure—has been used to assess comfort with, access to, and agency related to cultural and traditional resources. This adaptation focuses specifically on cultural engagement, identity, and confidence in accessing cultural knowledge, and was developed from items drawn from the NWA Self-Report Form. The Cultural Efficacy measure includes 7-8 items, uses a 5-point Likert response format, and yields a total score reflecting levels of cultural efficacy

AI/AN Communities where the measure has been used

Great Lakes and Southwest

Demographics of AI/AN participants where the scale has been used

Women ages 14+ with young children

Notes on adaptations or modifications

  1. The adaptation process involved: (a) university team members reviewing/pulling items from the assessment relevant to the concept of cultural efficacy; (b) community team members reviewing, removing, or revising items; and (c) piloting the measure with a convenience sample of Indigenous young adults who gave input on their comprehension and perceived meaning of measurement items. For the Family Spirit Strengths project (https://cih.jhu.edu/programs/family-spirit-strengths/) a 7-item adaptation of the scale was used. Significant adaptations to the Native Wellness Assessment include: reduction in items, language modifications
  2. In the Healing Pathways project (https://cih.jhu.edu/programs/healing-pathways/#:~:text=The%20Healing%20Pathways%20Project%20is,United%20States%20and%20Ontario%2C%20Canada.), this adapted scale was used with an additional item: I feel sure about who to ask to learn about [Native community name] cultural ways.
  3. In some versions of the scale, direct references are made to Native identity, in others, items refer to “my community” and “my cultural ways.”

Modality and administration

Interviewers worked to complete in‐person, interviewer‐administered computer‐assisted and paper‐and‐pencil survey interviews

Scoring

  • This measure is 7-8 items long and asks about the respondent’s comfort level with accessing cultural and traditional resources. Each item has 6 response options, ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” and an option for “do not know.” Items 5 and 6 are reverse-scored. Scores are an average over the items responded to. Higher scores reflect higher cultural efficacy.

Psychometric evidence

Cronbach’s alpha for NWA subscales, α > 0.80.

Citation(s)

  • Fiedeldey-Van Dijk, C., Rowan, M., Dell, C., Mushquash, C., Hopkins, C., Fornssler, B., Hall, L., Mykota, D., Farag, M., & Shea, B. (2017). Honoring Indigenous culture-as-intervention: Development and validity of the Native Wellness Assessment™. Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse, 16(2), 181–218. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332640.2015.1119774
  • Thunderbird Partnership Foundation. (2015). Native Wellness Assessment. National Native Addictions Partnership Foundation Inc. https://thunderbirdpf.org/native-wellness-assessment/
  • Gonzalez M.B,. Sittner K.J., Walls M.L. (2022) Cultural efficacy as a novel component of understanding linkages between culture and mental health in Indigenous communities. Am J Community Psychol. Sep;70(1-2):191-201. doi: 10.1002/ajcp.12594. Epub 2022 Mar 14. PMID: 35285956; PMCID: PMC9452443.

Disclaimer: The included citations are not exhaustive, but represent the examples we had access to. If you are an original author or have other work that could be included here, please contact us.