Is Immigration Related Stress Sufficiently Addressed within Culturally Adapted Parenting Interventions for Low-Income Latinos/As?

Introduction: Evidence-based parenting interventions constitute a key strategy to reduce the deleterious health disparities faced by Latino populations throughout the United States and the world. Although parental positive involvement has been found to be a critical protective factor for children, there is limited research exploring the relationship between positive involvement and immigration related stress among parents. This poster will describe the relationship between positive involvement and intrafamilial immigration stress among low-income Latino/as exposed to an evidence-based parenting intervention known as Parent Management Training, the Oregon Model (PMTO^R). Implications for cultural adaptation prevention research will be discussed.

Methods: This study is part of a NIMH-funded investigation that consisted of a randomized controlled trial aimed at contrasting the differential efficacy of two culturally adapted versions of Parent Management Training, the Oregon Model (PMTO^R). Participants were allocated to one of three conditions: (a) a culturally adapted PMTO, (b) a culturally enhanced PMTO, and (c) a wait-list control. Participants identified as Latinos/as and had a child who exhibited mild to moderate behavioral problems (n=103 families;189 individual parents). Measurements were implemented at baseline (T1), treatment completion (T2), and 6-month follow up (T3). Generalized estimating equations (GEE) models were used to test the association between positive involvement and intrafamilial immigration related stress for parents allocated to all three conditions. We hypothesized that (1) positive involvement would increase while immigration related stress would decrease over time for parents in both adapted interventions and (2) parents in the culturally enhanced condition would exhibit higher levels of positive involvement and lower levels of immigration related stress at T3 when compared to the culturally adapted and control conditions.

Results: Overall, positive involvement increased over time for participants in both adapted interventions while intrafamilial immigration related stress decreased over time. GEE models indicate statistically significant reductions in intrafamilial immigration stress for fathers in both PMTO conditions. However, for mothers, statistically significant reductions in intrafamilial immigration stress were only observed in the culturally enhanced condition.

Discussion: Findings partially confirm our hypotheses. Positive involvement increased while intrafamilial immigration stress decreased over time for parents in both adapted interventions. However, gender differences were observed in the culturally enhanced condition with regards to intrafamilial immigration stress. Only mothers in the culturally enhanced condition reported statistically significant reductions intrafamilial immigration stress, whereas fathers in both conditions reported statistically significant reductions in intrafamilial immigration stress. These findings highlight the relevance of comparative designs in cultural adaptation research, including the high need to examine the impact of differential levels of adaptation and parental gender effects.