Focusing on the three factors of Positive, Existential, Negative

Cultural Empowerment
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Cultural Empowerment
PEN-3 cultural model is a vital strategy in addressing the cultural bases of diabetes prevention amongst people of diverse cultures, for instance African Americans (Cowdery, Parker & Thompson, 2010). This paper describes the cultural empowerment of the African-American cultural group. In particular, the paper addresses how the PEN-3 Model’s three factors namely Positive, Existential, and Negative apply to African-Americans with regard to diabetes.
Positive Component
This component of the cultural empowerment domain refers to nurturers, enablers and perceptions which cause the target audience members to engage in the behaviour. It comprises relationships and values which promote the health behaviour of interest (Purcell & Cutchen, 2013). With regard to diabetes among African Americans, an example of a positive influence is support from friends and family. Support from friends and family regarding discouraging unhealthy behaviours like sneaking diabetic sweets, and emphasizing importance of healthy behaviours such as exercise and diet is vital in the prevention of diabetes among this cultural group. Other examples of positive influences include spirituality, as well as availability and location of resources for use in the prevention of diabetes including educational resources/materials about prevention of diabetes (Cowdery, Parker & Thompson, 2010).
Existential Component
This component of the cultural empowerment domain consists of practices which do not have any negative health outcomes and should be included in the intervention. However, they should not be changed. They comprise beliefs and values that are practiced in a given culture but do not present any threat to health (Cowdery, Parker & Thompson, 2010). These values should not be blamed by interventionists for failed interventions. Examples of existential factors with regard to diabetes among African Americans include faith leaders as sources of support, traditional healing, faith healing, and sense of inevitability for developing diabetes mellitus (Cowdery, Parker & Thompson, 2010).
Negative Component
This final component of the cultural empowerment domain comprises nurturers, enablers as well as ...