Salud y el Exito: Addressing Proven Factors in HIV Prevention for Latino Youth

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Padres Unidos por la Salud y el ¿xito de Nuestros Hijos aims to support Latino parents and schools in their efforts to promote the healthy choices of children, with the goal of reducing behaviors that lead to elevated levels of HIV/AIDS in urban Latino communities. The study is designed to advance efforts to begin HIV prevention early, during the preteen and young adolescent years, before youth establish patterns of behavior that jeopardize their health and success, or "Salud y ¿xito." Salud y ¿xito draws on a solid foundation of theoretical and empirical research that underscores the importance of supporting the primary role that parents play in healthy youth development. The study will test a bilingual version of a multi-year parent-mediated intervention, Salud y ¿xito, with primary Spanish- as well as English-speaking Latino parents and youth. This intervention consists of parent education delivered through sets of audio-CDs to promote positive parenting practices, including monitoring, rule setting, communication, and support. In addition, Salud y ¿xito M s, an enhanced version of this parent-mediated approach, will be tested. This enhanced intervention integrates audio-CD parent education with a school-based parent involvement program, PALMS Tools for Latino Family Outreach. These tools facilitate the creation of welcoming environments that encourage parental involvement in their preteens' and young adolescents' academic success and future education planning. This is critical because Latinos experience the highest levels of school dropout and school failure, which are both consequences and risk factors for risky behaviors related to HIV/AIDS. Both intervention components have a common purpose: Promoting positive parenting practices known to foster resiliency and protect youth from risk. The specific aims are to: (1) Enroll and randomly assign 60 urban schools serving high proportions of Latino families to one of three conditions: (a) Salud y ¿xito multi-year parent education; (b) Salud y ¿xito M s parent education supplemented with PALMS; or a (c) comparison condition (health education print materials); (2) Enroll 1600 Latino families with youth from 6th grade classes in the study and conduct telephone parent surveys and youth classroom surveys at baseline; (3)Implement Salud y ¿xito intervention components at schools assigned to the intervention conditions; (4) Conduct youth surveys at 3- and 15-month follow-ups to test whether the interventions are effective in reducing risk behaviors and intentions and promoting school attachment and pro-social activities; (5) Conduct parent surveys at 3- and 15-month follow-ups to test whether the interventions promote and sustain positive parenting practices; (6) Examine how parenting practices and youth outcomes vary by individual and family characteristics, including gender as well as acculturation; and (7) Examine whether youth outcomes are explained by parenting practices and identify which parenting practices mediate the relationship between experimental condition and youth outcomes. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Salud y el ¿xito aims to support Latino parents and schools in their efforts to promote the academic success and healthy choices of children, with the goal of reducing behaviors that lead to elevated levels of HIV/AIDS in urban Latino communities. This innovative parent-mediated prevention program targets urban schools serving large numbers of Latino families, where high proportions of youth are sexually initiated before the age of 15, placing them at risk of HIV/AIDS and other negative health, educational, economic and social outcomes, including teen pregnancies, teen births, and school dropout.