Preventive Intervention for Mexican American Adolescents

描述(由申请者提供)：研究表明， 墨西哥人心理健康状况差与辍学相关问题 然而，美国青少年目前缺乏干预措施 专门为解决这一风险而设计的。拟议的项目是一个 文化能力干预的多队列、试验性现场试验 以预防低收入墨西哥裔美国青少年的心理健康障碍。 该计划将以480名招募的青少年为样本进行评估 来自市中心4所学校为期3年的课程。其中每一个都是青少年 四所学校将被随机分配与家长一起参加 干预或低剂量车间条件下，具有相同数量的 分配给这两种情况的以西班牙语为主和以英语为主的家庭。 这两个干预条件将连续3年执行 有3个独立的队列(每个队列160个)的青少年接受 在各自的学校举办课程或研讨会。 多成分干预包括青少年群体、父母养育 小组、(家长-青少年)组合家庭小组和一名学校联络员。三人组 基于组的组件将在11周内进行(每周9次 课程加2次家访)在7年级秋季学期。这所学校 联络员将在此期间与家庭进行干预，直到#年结束。 七年级。该方案的目标是4名经验支持的调解人，包括 青少年应对技能、育儿实践、家庭凝聚力和父母 对教育的支持。该计划背后的理论提出了这一变化 这些调解人将导致学校参与度的增加和减少 与离经叛道的同龄人交往，这反过来会导致精神健康状况下降 有问题。评价内容包括多尺度、多信息源 预试、即刻对中介物和结果变量的评估 后测、5个月随访和23个月随访(九年级)。青少年， 家长、教师和学校的档案数据将包括在内。 该项目有三个具体目标：1.评估该计划的效果，以 向外部化和内部化问题转变的轨迹 过渡到初中，降低精神健康障碍的发生率 以及高中毕业后的辍学问题。2.测试 通过评估项目的“中介效果”来进行干预的理论 随后的心理健康和学业结果通过假定的中介变量 该计划的目标是。3.评估计划的任何不同效果，如 青少年性别的作用，较高的初始症状水平，以及 程序交付的语言。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Research has shown increased risk for interrelated problems of poor mental health and school dropout for Mexican American adolescents yet there is currently a lack of interventions specifically designed to address this risk. The proposed project is a multi-cohort, experimental field trial of a culturally competent intervention to prevent mental health disorders for low-income Mexican American adolescents. The program will be evaluated with a sample of 480 adolescents recruited over the course of 3 years from 4 inner-city schools. Adolescent from each of these four schools will be randomly assigned to participate with their parents in the intervention or a low-dose workshop condition, with equal numbers of Spanish-dominant and English-dominant families assigned to the two conditions. The two intervention conditions will be implemented for 3 consecutive years with 3 independent cohorts (160 per cohort) of adolescents receiving either the program or workshop at their respective schools. The multi-component intervention includes an adolescent group, a parenting group, a combined (parent-adolescent) family group and a school liaison. The 3 group-based components will take place over the course of 11 weeks (9 weekly sessions plus 2 home visits) during the fall semester of 7th grade. The school liaison will intervene with families during this period and until the end of 7th grade. The program targets 4 empirically supported mediators, including adolescent coping skills, parenting practices, family cohesion and parental support for education. The theory underlying the program proposes that change in these mediators will lead to increased school engagement and decreased association with deviant peers which will lead, in turn, to fewer mental health problems. The evaluation includes multiple-measure, multiple-informant assessment on the mediators and outcome variables at pretest, immediate posttest, 5-month follow-up and 23-month follow-up (9th grade). Adolescent, parent, teacher and school archival data will be included. The project has 3 specific aims: 1. To evaluate the efficacy of the program to change trajectories toward externalizing and internalizing problems following the transition to junior high school and reduce rates of mental health disorder and school drop-out following the transition to high school. 2. To test the theory of the intervention by assessing the "mediated effect" of the program on subsequent mental health and academic outcomes through the putative mediators targeted in the program. 3. To assess any differential effect of the program as a function of adolescent gender, higher initial levels of symptomatology, and language of program delivery.