Preventive Intervention for Mexican American Adolescents

描述（由申请人提供）：研究表明， 墨西哥人心理健康状况差和辍学的相互关联问题 美国青少年目前缺乏干预措施 专门针对这种风险。拟议的项目是一个 多队列，实验性现场试验的文化能力的干预 以防止低收入墨西哥裔美国青少年的心理健康障碍。 该计划将与480名青少年的样本进行评估， 4所市中心学校的3年课程。青少年从每一个这些 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， 西班牙语占主导地位和英语占主导地位的家庭分配到两个条件。 两项干预条件将连续实施3年 3个独立队列（每个队列160例）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组，父母 小组、家长-青少年联合家庭小组和学校联络小组。的3 以小组为基础的组成部分将在11周内进行（每周9次 会议加2次家访）在7年级的秋季学期。学校 在此期间，联络员将与家属进行接触，直到年底。 七年级。该计划针对4个经验支持的调解人，包括 青少年应对技能、父母教养方式、家庭凝聚力和父母 支持教育。该计划的理论基础是， 在这些调解人将导致增加学校的参与和减少 与不正常的同龄人交往，这反过来会导致心理健康状况下降， 问题评价包括多尺度、多信息源 预试验时对中介物和结局变量的评估，即刻 后测、5个月随访和23个月随访（9年级）。青春期， 并会包括家长，教师及学校的档案资料。 该项目有三个具体目标：1。为了评估该计划的有效性， 将问题外化和内化的轨迹 向初中过渡和降低心理健康障碍率 以及高中毕业后的辍学率。2.测试 通过评估方案的“中介效应”， 随后的心理健康和学术成果，通过假定的调解人 在节目中针对。3.评估该计划的任何差异效应， 青少年性别的函数，较高的初始生殖学水平，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.