Cultural Specificity and the Development of Effective Interventions for Latino Immigrant Families in Oregon

Introduction: For the past two decades, our research team in Oregon has conducted studies related to strengthening Latino immigrant families. We will describe learnings and results from projects of greatest relevance to the symposium theme. We will discuss links between health outcomes and cultural socialization processes (i.e., adjustment to mainstream culture and to one’s culture of origin) and efficacious methodological approaches in Latino immigrant communities.

Methods: Our presenters’ experience developing and evaluating interventions informs our paper focus on culturally specific components in relation to behaviors, and mental and physical health symptomsthat predict outcomes for immigrant families. Specifically, (Name withheld for review) developed the Healthy Balance (HB) intervention for families with preschool age children (N = 185) and tested it in two pilot randomized control trials (RCT). The second pilot RCT refined and tested the HB intervention for rural Latino immigrant families. Parents were targeted to make family-level nutrition and physical activity changes in part by asking them to take a stance against unhealthy lifestyle choices for their child’s health. Significant effects were found for the Latino immigrant sample only; those who were randomized to the HB intervention had significant reductions in blood pressure, neck circumference and body mass index relative to families in the educational video control condition.

Building on the work above, (Names withheld) co-designed Familias Saludables (FS), a Spanish and English family-based health intervention involving education and support for positive parenting, healthy family communication, and family-based stress management, exercise and nutrition. This program was based on Healthy Balance and earlier work by (Names withheld) to develop the culturally adapted parenting program Nuestras Familias/Our Families (NF). NF has been cited as one of the few empirically supported efficacious preventive interventions for Latino youth drug use and related problem behaviors. Initial efficacy of FS (N = 114 parents; N = 96 youth) was exemplified in findings such as intervention youth reporting significantly more improvement in their physical health, and intervention parents reporting better health and greater hope for their children’s futures than control parents.

Results: We compare the studies described above in relation to culturally specific factors that influenced intervention structures, content, delivery to contribute to significant intervention-related findings.

Conclusions: We review culturally specific factors we have integrated into our interventions with Latino immigrant families. These factors may improve the effectiveness of preventive intervention programs thus promoting equity and decreasing disparities.