Harold L. Odden
I am interested in adolescent mental and behavioral health and well-being in the context of rapid sociocultural, economic, and political change. I am particularly interested in trying to understand the linkages between individual health and well-being and macro-level process of globalization. I have been conducting research in Samoa for over a decade, but am hoping to develop a second field site in the Balkans in the future on a related set of issues.
I have also been conducting research on cultural conceptions of sleep and insomnia in the U.S., the wide range of treatment modalities used to manage sleep problems, and the criteria being used to gauge the effectiveness of these treatments.
My doctoral dissertation research was entitled "Acquisition of Cultural Knowledge of Hierarchy by Samoan Children" and it focused on enculturation and learning in a rural Samoan village.
Phone: 260.481.4183
Address: Department of Anthropology
Indiana University-Purdue University
2101 E. Coliseum Blvd
Fort Wayne, IN 46805
USA
I have also been conducting research on cultural conceptions of sleep and insomnia in the U.S., the wide range of treatment modalities used to manage sleep problems, and the criteria being used to gauge the effectiveness of these treatments.
My doctoral dissertation research was entitled "Acquisition of Cultural Knowledge of Hierarchy by Samoan Children" and it focused on enculturation and learning in a rural Samoan village.
Phone: 260.481.4183
Address: Department of Anthropology
Indiana University-Purdue University
2101 E. Coliseum Blvd
Fort Wayne, IN 46805
USA
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Design and Methods: A survey was administered to secondary school children (n = 879) between 12 and 19 years of age at a single school in Apia, the capital of Samoa, in August 2008.
Results: There were important gender differences in substance use with boys reporting significantly higher rates of any use of each substance and polysubstance use. Boys were also three times more likely to report behaviours indicative of substance use problems. There were no significant differences in regular use of any substance with the exception of marijuana. Although the use of hallucinogens is prominent for boys and girls in the younger age group (12–15), consumption decreases with age. Boys showed substantial increases in any use of alcohol and marijuana and daily use of tobacco by age. There was also a significant increase in the number of boys reporting behaviours indicative of disordered use by age to 21% of 16- to 19-year-old boys.
Discussion and Conclusions: One of few studies on substance use in Samoa, the data provide a basis for setting priorities to address health risks posed by adolescent use and understanding the influence of rapid change."
This dissertation documents how children are socialized to use observational, imitative, and participatory learning as primary modes of social learning, as they adapt to familial demands and practices, prevailing ethnotheories of child development, and other aspects of their developmental niche. The ways in which social learning is structured in this context in which children develop to more adequately understand the nature and full range of variation in developmental processes.
Samoan patterns of social learning have an important influence on the intergenerational transmission of cultural knowledge and practice. Research findings suggest that rather than a simple replication of existing systems of inequality (i.e. with children of higher-ranking households attaining greater cultural competence than lower-ranking ones), an emphasis on observational learning means that endogenous factors such as the child's motivation to learn, and social factors such as positive social relationships with one's elders moderate the importance of family rank. These findings fit a Samoan cultural emphasis on gaining competence in the chief system through long-term service to chiefs, parents and descent group elders. The research also points to a number of different "leveling mechanisms", including the village primary school, that serve to widely disseminate opportunities to learn one's culture that undercut more restrictive forms of intergenerational transmission. The implications of the study's findings to our understanding of the complex interactions of cultural practices, social organization, and processes of human development over ontogeny are discussed.
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Design and Methods: A survey was administered to secondary school children (n = 879) between 12 and 19 years of age at a single school in Apia, the capital of Samoa, in August 2008.
Results: There were important gender differences in substance use with boys reporting significantly higher rates of any use of each substance and polysubstance use. Boys were also three times more likely to report behaviours indicative of substance use problems. There were no significant differences in regular use of any substance with the exception of marijuana. Although the use of hallucinogens is prominent for boys and girls in the younger age group (12–15), consumption decreases with age. Boys showed substantial increases in any use of alcohol and marijuana and daily use of tobacco by age. There was also a significant increase in the number of boys reporting behaviours indicative of disordered use by age to 21% of 16- to 19-year-old boys.
Discussion and Conclusions: One of few studies on substance use in Samoa, the data provide a basis for setting priorities to address health risks posed by adolescent use and understanding the influence of rapid change."
This dissertation documents how children are socialized to use observational, imitative, and participatory learning as primary modes of social learning, as they adapt to familial demands and practices, prevailing ethnotheories of child development, and other aspects of their developmental niche. The ways in which social learning is structured in this context in which children develop to more adequately understand the nature and full range of variation in developmental processes.
Samoan patterns of social learning have an important influence on the intergenerational transmission of cultural knowledge and practice. Research findings suggest that rather than a simple replication of existing systems of inequality (i.e. with children of higher-ranking households attaining greater cultural competence than lower-ranking ones), an emphasis on observational learning means that endogenous factors such as the child's motivation to learn, and social factors such as positive social relationships with one's elders moderate the importance of family rank. These findings fit a Samoan cultural emphasis on gaining competence in the chief system through long-term service to chiefs, parents and descent group elders. The research also points to a number of different "leveling mechanisms", including the village primary school, that serve to widely disseminate opportunities to learn one's culture that undercut more restrictive forms of intergenerational transmission. The implications of the study's findings to our understanding of the complex interactions of cultural practices, social organization, and processes of human development over ontogeny are discussed.