Does Baseline Family Functioning Moderate a Family-Based Intervention’s Effect on Youth Behavior? a Person-Centered Approach to Moderated Mediation Analyses

Introduction: Positive family functioning has been shown to mediate family-based interventions’ long-term effects on youth internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms, substance use, sexual risk behavior, and more. While there is strong evidence to suggest that family functioning is a key mediator, most studies do not consider whether baseline family functioning is a moderator as well. The purpose of the current study is to explore whether there is a differential longitudinal effect of a family-based, preventive intervention on adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptoms through improvement in family functioning, based on latent family functioning groups at baseline.

Methods: Data from four previous family-based intervention trials were merged (N= 1445 Hispanic families). Latent Profile Analyses (LPA) were conducted on parent, self-report of baseline family functioning, comprised of parent-adolescent communication, parental monitoring of peers, parental involvement, and positive parenting practices. The BCH approach was utilized to weigh profile membership while estimating the moderated mediation models. Across each latent profile, pairwise comparisons of the regression paths indicated a moderation effect (significant Wald test p-value < .05).

Results: LPA resulted in four, ordinal profiles at baseline: (1) Low Family Functioning (n = 210, 14.55%), (2) Low-to-Moderate Family Functioning (n = 554, 38.39%), (3) Moderate-to-High Family Functioning (n = 490, 33.96%), and (4) High Family Functioning (n = 189, 13.10%). When examining main effects of the intervention, there was a marginally significant difference (p=.052) between the Low-to-Moderate Family Functioning group and High Family Functioning group, such that adolescents with parents who reported high family functioning experienced greater reductions in internalizing symptoms after participating in the intervention. There were no other significant differences in the moderated or moderated mediation effects across baseline family functioning profiles.

Discussion: The findings align with some literature which suggests that parents with high family functioning may attend intervention sessions more, and, thus, attain more skills from the intervention or continue practicing their baseline behavior. However, the findings were a) not replicated across other profile groups (e.g., low versus high) for the internalizing or externalizing outcome and b) did not demonstrate differences in the mediational pathway, so they must be interpreted with caution. In the symposium, we will explore other potential explanations of the findings, outline strengths and limitations of our methodology, and present results for other intervention outcomes, i.e., adolescent substance use and risky sexual behavior