Participants' Satisfaction with an Immigrant Family-Skills Building Program to Prevent Tobacco and Substance Use in Latino Youth

Background: Even though smoking rates have declined in the general population, there have been no changes in smoking initiation rates among adolescents. Compared to Whites, Latino youth are at equal or increased risk for lifetime tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, and other illicit drug use. Family skills training interventions have been successful in reducing substance use, however few of them were developed specifically for Latino families, and none have been developed using a Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach. Padres Informados, Jóvenes Preparados (PI/JP) is an eight-session group parenting intervention directed to immigrant Latino families designed using CBPR methods. It aims to reduce substance use intention among 10-14 year old adolescents by improving parenting practices, parent-youth interpersonal skills, and youth social competencies. Currently, this intervention is being tested in a randomized controlled trial. Participant satisfaction with the curriculum represents program acceptability and appropriateness, important outcomes of successful program implementation. The aim of this proposal is to report participants’ satisfaction of the PI/JP program using both qualitative and quantitative approaches.

Methods: Parents completed an end of session evaluation form. The quantitative assessment included five 4-score Likert questions that evaluated parents’ perception of the session’s content, group process, and trainer engagement. The qualitative assessment included two open-ended questions asking for important components of the session, and suggestions for improvement. Quantitative responses were summarized using descriptive statistics and qualitative data were transcribed, coded, and classified into themes.

Results: After delivering the program in 4 sites (n=83 families) we collected 408 evaluations. 99% of evaluations considered the sessions’ themes useful (n=404), 92% reflected comfort sharing their opinions (n=375), and 98% expressed that the facilitator listened and helped them to understand the concepts of the session (n=401). Salient intervention components where: all program elements, learning to listen and communicate with youth, group participation process, learning to empathize with youth by recognizing cultural differences, and recognizing the importance of being a positive parent. Areas for program improvement include increasing parent’s participation, to start sessions on time, have more time to talk and answer questions, and to make sessions more dynamic.

Implications and Recommendations: Using a CBPR approach to design a substance use prevention program produces highly positive program evaluations among study participants. This suggests intervention acceptability and appropriateness for participating parents. Based on these results, tobacco and substance use prevention programs should incorporate CBPR approaches to program development.