Examining the Social Validity of a Parenting Prevention Intervention for Asian Immigrant Parents

The Asian population is the fastest growing racial group in the U.S. Yet, disparities in access/quality of mental health services for Asian immigrant youth persist. Asian youth continue to experiences high rates of unmet mental health needs and low rates of service use, despite having similar rates of mental health problems as their White peers. It is critical to examine the help-seeking behaviors of parents since they are the gatekeepers to youth service use. Little is known about factors affecting treatment engagement among Asian parents. Culturally-contingent factors, such as social validity, may influence how individuals from ethnic minority populations engage in treatment. Social validity (SV) is defined as the perception of the social importance and acceptability of an intervention by a specific cultural group.

Previous studies have found the prevention interventions like the Family Check-Up (FCU) to be effective at mitigating mental problems among youth by promoting positive parenting behaviors. Previous findings show that Asian immigrant parents perceive the FCU to be less socially valid compared to White parents. To elaborate upon these findings, this study explored how parenting behaviors of Asian immigrant parents may relate to SV perceptions of the FCU, and which aspects (i.e., subscale) of SV may be more relevant for these parents.

Participants were Asian immigrants parents (n = 101) from Northern California. Parents provided self-report data about their demographics and acculturation/enculturation levels, parenting behaviors, and SV based on a description of FCU. The parenting behaviors were proactive parenting (e.g., giving clear choices), parental monitoring (e.g., knowing child’s activities), family routine (e.g., having meals together), positive parent-child relationship (e.g., open communication), parent engagement (e.g., helping with homework), and positive reinforcement (e.g., praising child). The SV subscales were understanding the intervention procedures/goals, reasonableness of the intervention procedures/goals, willingness to engage in the procedures, perceived effectiveness, and disruption in family routines. Multiple regressions were conducted to determine the associations between the parenting behaviors and SV subscales.

Results found that education level and quality time were positively associated with understanding the FCU (ps < .05). Proactive parenting and enculturation were positively related to perceptions of reasonableness and effectiveness of the FCU (ps < .05). These findings highlight how prevention science can start to systematically identify the cultural variables that are critical in treatment engagement as a way to reduce and eliminate disparities for underserved communities.