A Culturally Specific Intervention for Latino Families

描述(申请人提供)：拉美裔是美国增长最快的族群，但我们对风险和保护机制的理解远远落后于增长率。我们确实知道，对于许多拉丁裔青少年来说，随着他们及其家人经历适应文化的过程，他们使用/滥用药物的风险大大增加。此外，数据表明，他们因使用药物而产生的共病效应和后果(例如，学业失败、监禁、健康状况不佳)的风险更大。理论模型表明，文化适应过程与其他背景因素(如社会经济地位、社会支持过程)一起，通过影响更接近的变量(即育儿实践)间接地影响青少年的适应。虽然许多预防努力主要针对非少数族裔家庭的育儿做法，但很少有干预模式被测试，以解决拉美裔家庭的特定文化风险和保护因素。这项拟议的研究将通过对改编自俄勒冈州社会学习中心家长管理培训模式的特定文化预防性干预进行随机纵向疗效试验，帮助填补这一空白。该项目是在NIDA的支持下在四年内开发的，将在240个拉丁裔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下，50%的家庭将被分配到控制条件下。样本也将在焦点青少年的出生状态(即50%是美国出生的婴儿和50%是外国出生的婴儿)上被阻止。所有家庭将在大约两年的时间里，在五个点上使用多种方法和试剂进行评估。该项目的目的是：(1)检查针对拉美裔家庭的文化规定的父母培训干预措施在减少家庭压力、改进有效的育儿做法、降低青少年使用药物风险和相关问题方面的有效性；(2)检查干预措施作为青年出生状况、青年性别和较高的青年问题行为初始水平的功能的潜在差异效果；以及(3)通过确定与干预措施相关的有针对性的育儿做法的变化是否中介了青少年向药物使用风险和相关行为健康问题的轨迹的变化，来测试干预措施背后的理论。

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.