The Efficacy of a Culturally-Based Parenting Intervention: Strengthening Open Communication Between Mexican Heritage Parents and Their Adolescent

Introduction: Eighth grade Latino adolescents, from a national sample, report higher rates of illicit drug use than their European American and African American peers. Latino adolescents in families with greater open-communication exhibit less substance use. The abstract evaluates the initial efficacy of this culturally-grounded parenting intervention, Familias: Preparando la Nueva Generación (FPNG), in strengthening family functioning, and more specifically, in enhancing open family communication. FPNG focuses on familial influences that characterize Mexican heritage youth and families, including the impact of acculturation. Using Community Based Participatory Research, including stakeholder involvement, the FPNG curriculum was developed, evaluated for feasibility, and revised to complement the classroom-based keepin’ it REAL (kiR) youth substance use prevention program. The FPNG curriculum includes eight workshops that are highly interactive and emphasize “hands on” activities that build and strengthen family functioning that can lead to pro-social youth behavior and increase family’s problem solving and communication skills. We hypothesize that open communication will be enhanced among parent participants enrolled in FPNG (parent intervention + youth intervention) when compared to parents of youth involved in the kiR intervention (youth intervention only) and to parents in the control condition (no interventions).

Methods: Nine middle schools were block-randomized: parent + youth (PY), youth-only (Y), and control (C) conditions. Parents of 7^th grade youth (N=393, 82.8% mothers, Mage=38.5, 34.7% some high school/no diploma) completed self-report surveys at baseline and immediately following the intervention.

Findings: Using structural equation modeling, as hypothesized, we found that parents in the PY group reported greater levels of open family communication at follow-up compared to parents in the Y group, β = .12, p < .05, controlling for open communication at baseline, χ²(30) = 39.45, p=.12, with a good model fit, RMSEA = .03, CFI=.99, TLI=.99. Parents in the C group were not significantly different than parents in the Y group at follow-up (W2), β = .08, p > .05, controlling for open communication at baseline.

Discussion: The results of the present study confirm that known parenting practices relevant to the reduction of adolescent risk behavior are malleable to change.  We found that FPNG was effective at changing the ways in which parents and adolescents communicate with each other – an important mechanism through which we may expect change in risk behavior. The inclusion of parents in adolescent-focused preventive interventions may be a promising means to increase the effect size of an efficacious youth intervention.