A Culturally Specific Intervention for Latino Families

描述（由申请人提供）：拉丁美洲人是美国增长最快的族裔群体，但我们对风险和保障机制的认识却远远落后于增长速度。我们确实知道，对于许多拉丁裔年轻人来说，随着他们及其家人在文化适应过程中的变化，药物使用/滥用的风险大幅增加。此外，数据表明，他们面临着更大的并发症影响和物质使用后果的风险（例如，学业失败，监禁，健康状况不佳）。理论模型表明，文化适应过程，沿着其他环境因素（如，社会经济地位，社会支持过程），通过影响更接近的变量（即，育儿实践）。虽然许多预防工作都针对大多数非少数族裔家庭的育儿做法，但很少有干预模式经过测试，可以解决拉丁裔家庭的文化特定风险和保护因素。这项拟议的研究将有助于填补这一空白，进行一项随机纵向疗效试验的文化特定的预防干预改编自俄勒冈州社会学习中心的家长管理培训模型。该计划在NIDA的支持下开发了四年多，将在240个拉丁美洲家庭的样本中进行评估，这些家庭的孩子在6到8年级。50%的家庭将被分配到干预条件，50%将被分配到控制条件。样本也将被封锁在重点青少年的出生状态（即，50%来自美国，50%来自外国）。所有家庭都将在大约两年的时间内使用多种方法和试剂在五个点进行评估。该项目的目标是：（1）检查拉丁美洲家庭的文化指定的父母培训干预措施在减少家庭压力，提高有效的育儿实践，减少青少年使用药物和相关问题的风险方面的有效性;（2）检查干预措施作为青少年出生状态，青少年性别和青少年问题行为的较高初始水平的函数的潜在差异效应;以及（3）通过确定青少年对物质使用风险和相关行为健康问题的轨迹变化是否由针对性的父母行为的干预相关变化介导，来测试干预的理论基础。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Latinos make up the fastest growing ethnic subgroup in the U.S., yet our understanding about mechanisms of risk and protection has lagged far behind the growth rate. We do know that, for many Latino youngsters, risk for substance use/abuse grows substantially as they and their families move through the acculturation process. Moreover, data indicate that they are at greater risk for the co-morbid effects and consequences of substance use (e.g., school failure, incarceration, poor health). Theoretical models suggest that acculturation processes, along with other contextual factors (e.g., socioeconomic status, social support processes), exert their effects on youngster adjustment indirectly, by impacting more proximal variables (i.e., parenting practices). While numerous prevention efforts have targeted parenting practices in mostly non-minority families, few intervention models have been tested that address culturally specific risk and protective factors for Latino families. The proposed study will help fill this gap by conducting a randomized longitudinal efficacy trial of a culturally specific preventive intervention adapted from the Oregon Social Learning Center's Parent Management Training model. The program, developed over four years with the support of NIDA, will be evaluated in a sample of 240 Latino families with youngsters in the 6th through 8th grade. Fifty percent of the families will be assigned to the intervention condition, and 50% will be assigned to the control condition. The sample will also be blocked on the focal youngsters' nativity status (i.e., 50% U.S-bom and 50% foreign- bom). All families will be assessed using multiple methods and agents at five points over approximately a two-year period. The project aims are to: (1) examine the efficacy of a culturally specified parent training intervention for Latino families on decreasing family stress, improving effective parenting practices, and reducing youngster risk for substance use and related problems; (2) examine potential differential effects of the intervention as a function of youth nativity status, youth gender, and higher initial levels of youth problem behaviors; and (3) test the theory underlying the intervention by determining whether changes in youngster trajectories towards risk for substance use and related behavioral health problems are mediated by intervention related changes to targeted parenting practices.