Parent Mental Health and Parenting Efficacy: Findings from a Culturally Informed Youth Substance Abuse Program for Latino Families

Family-based prevention programs have been effective at reducing both youth substance use and psychological distress. In addition, participating parents may benefit through reduced distress and increased parenting efficacy. The few family-based prevention programs focusing specifically on Latino families substantiate youth benefit in reduction of internalizing symptoms (e.g., Perrino et al., 2014), but little work has identified parent benefit in this community. The current study examined the effect of Padres Informados/Jovenes Preparados (PI/JP), a family-based prevention program developed through CBPR approaches, on parent mental health and parenting efficacy. We expected that after receiving the program, parents would have lower psychological distress and higher parenting efficacy compared to the control group.

Between 2011-2013, 346 families with a parent who identified as Spanish-speaking Latino immigrant (92% female, M age = 38.03) and a child aged 10-14 who identified as Latino were recruited through community partners. To achieve a balance of intervention and control groups at each site, we used block randomization. Intervention parents were offered 8 sessions addressing parenting skills and Latino cultural values. At baseline and at 6 months post intervention, parents completed the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (10 items; α = 0.92) and the Parenting Efficacy Scale (17 items; α = 0.93). Background variables included gender and age of parents, parent education, monthly household income, and marital status; the analytic sample was 252 parents.

Using linear regression analysis, we found no direct effects of the intervention on parent psychological distress at 6 months, but we did find a direct, marginal effect on parenting efficacy (Est.= .09, SE = 0.05, p = .080). In addition, we found interaction effects: the intervention was related to reduced parental psychological distress (Est. = -1.42, SE = 0.51, p = .006) and increased parenting efficacy (Est. = .67, SE = 0.32, p = .035) among younger parents. Plots of the interactions revealed that the intervention reduced distress for parents younger than 37 and increased parenting efficacy for parents younger than age 42.

Our findings imply that family-based prevention for Latino families can have a positive impact on parents’ mental health and parenting efficacy. Parenting efficacy may be a key mechanism to promoting later mental health of parents and youth (Sandler et al., 2011). Also, we found differential effects of the program on mental health depending on the age of the parents, suggesting that younger Latino parents feel overwhelmed and have greater need for parenting support.