Jason J. Burrow-Sanchez

The Young Parenthood Program: Preventing Intimate Partner Violence Between Adolescent Mothers and Young Fathers

This pilot study tested the Young Parenthood Program (YPP), which is a new coparenting counseling program designed to support positive communications and prevent the occurrence of intimate partner violence (IPV) among pregnant adolescents and their biological partners. One hundred five coparenting couples were recruited, assessed, and randomized into a treatment or a control group and then reassessed at 3 and 18 months post birth. The assessment process included an interview-based screening for the occurrence of IPV that was administered to both mothers and fathers in individual meetings. Initial results indicated that couples who were randomly assigned to the YPP were significantly less likely to have engaged in IPV at the first follow-up, compared to couples in the “treatment as usual” control group, but the strength of this finding diminished over time. Because the YPP is new and our sample is relatively small, findings should be regarded as preliminary. Additional testing of YPP is necessary, but initial results are promising and underscore the potential value of targeted programs for preventing IPV among at-risk populations.

Young parenthood program: supporting positive paternal engagement through coparenting counseling.

OBJECTIVES Because of their youth, adolescent parents often lack the interpersonal skills necessary to manage the relationship challenges involved in parenting, leaving them and their children vulnerable to the health risks associated with relational stress and conflict. The primary goal of this study was to test the efficacy of the Young Parenthood Program (YPP), a 10-week counseling program administered during pregnancy and designed to facilitate interpersonal skill development and positive parenting among adolescent parents. METHODS Participants included 105 pregnant adolescents and their partners randomly assigned to YPP or treatment as usual. Assessments measured coparenting skills and parental functioning during the second trimester, 12 weeks after birth, and 18 months after birth. RESULTS Results indicated that fathers completing YPP demonstrated more positive parenting than did fathers in the control group. Moreover, the positive outcomes in paternal functioning were mediated through changes in the mothers interpersonal skill development. CONCLUSIONS Results supported the efficacy of this couples-focused, coparenting support program, particularly for facilitating positive paternal engagement. These findings underscored the relevance of including fathers in the delivery of maternal-child public health services.

The influence of attitudes, acculturation, and gender on substance use for Mexican American middle school students

The present study tested if current drug use was related to acculturation (measured by language spoken at home), gender, or youth attitudes towards drugs in a large sample of 8th grade, predominantly Mexican American, Hispanic youth. The data were obtained via self-report survey from 2964 Hispanic youth in 108 schools. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to test if acculturation, gender, or youth attitudes towards drugs predicted past 30-day use of alcohol, inhalant, or marijuana use and assess school-level influences. Acculturation and gender interacted with attitudes towards drugs to predict current alcohol use. Gender interacted with attitudes towards drugs to predict current alcohol and inhalant use. Having positive attitudes towards drugs was related to increased substance use for all three drug types. Hispanic eighth grade girls had significantly higher use rates than boys for both alcohol and inhalants. Additional research is needed to better understand the influence of acculturation on substance use among Hispanic youth.

Cultural Accommodation of Substance Abuse Treatment for Latino Adolescents

Collaboration with community stakeholders is an often suggested step when integrating cultural variables into psychological treatments for members of ethnic minority groups. However, there is a dearth of literature describing how to accomplish this process within the context of substance abuse treatment studies. This article describes a qualitative study conducted through a series of focus groups with stakeholders in the Latino community. Data from focus groups were used by the researchers to guide the integration of cultural variables into an empirically supported substance abuse treatment for Latino adolescents currently being evaluated for efficacy. A model for culturally accommodating empirically supported treatments for ethnic minority participants is also described.

Comparing culturally accommodated versus standard group CBT for Latino adolescents with substance use disorders: a pilot study.

Studies comparing empirically supported substance abuse treatments versus their culturally accommodated counterparts with participants from a specific ethnic minority group are lacking in the literature. To address this gap, this pilot study was conducted to compare the feasibility and relative efficacy of an empirically supported standard version of cognitive-behavioral substance abuse treatment (S-CBT) to a culturally accommodated version (A-CBT) with a sample of Latino adolescents. This study was guided by a Cultural Accommodation Model for Substance Abuse Treatment (CAM-SAT). Thirty-five Latino adolescents (mean age = 15.49) were randomly assigned to one of two 12-week group-based treatment conditions (S-CBT = 18; A-CBT = 17) with assessments conducted at pretreatment, posttreatment and 3-month follow-up. Results indicated similar retention and satisfaction rates for participants in both treatment conditions. In addition, participants in both conditions demonstrated significant decreases in substance use from pre- to posttreatment with slight increases at 3-month follow-up; however, substance use outcomes were moderated by two cultural variables: ethnic identity and familism. Implications of these findings within the context of conducting clinical trials with Latino adolescents are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).

Perceived Competence in Addressing Student Substance Abuse : A National Survey of Middle School Counselors

BACKGROUND Student substance abuse is a serious concern for middle school personnel. School counselors are most likely to deliver mental health services, including substance abuse, in school settings. However, limited research is available on the perceived competence of middle school counselors for addressing student substance abuse concerns. The main purpose of this study was to determine how middle school counselors perceive their training in 9 competence areas related to student substance abuse. A secondary aim of this study was to identify which training areas counselors indicate as being most needed to address student substance abuse. METHODS A survey study was conducted that included a national sample of 283 middle school counselors. Analysis of variance was used to determine differences between 9 competency areas rated by counselors. Further analysis was conducted to determine which training areas were most important to counselors. RESULTS Counselors varied in their perceived competence depending on the specific area of student substance abuse; however, they were clearly able to identify the most important areas of training needed. CONCLUSIONS Overall, the findings from this study indicate that middle school counselors require more training in the area of student substance abuse. Specifically, this study provides information on the most important areas of training as identified by counselors.

Cultural Accommodation of Group Substance Abuse Treatment for Latino Adolescents: Results of an RCT

Comparative studies examining the difference between empirically supported substance abuse treatments versus their culturally accommodated counterparts with participants from a single ethnic minority group are frequently called for in the literature but infrequently conducted in practice. This randomized clinical trial was conducted to compare the efficacy of an empirically supported standard version of a group-based cognitive-behavioral treatment (S-CBT) to a culturally accommodated version (A-CBT) with a sample of Latino adolescents primarily recruited from the juvenile justice system. Development of the culturally accommodated treatment and testing was guided by the Cultural Accommodation Model for Substance Abuse Treatment (CAM-SAT). Seventy Latino adolescents (mean age = 15.2; 90% male) were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 group-based treatment conditions (S-CBT = 36; A-CBT = 34) with assessments conducted at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 3-month follow-up. Longitudinal Poisson mixed models for count data were used to conduct the major analyses. The primary outcome variable in the analytic models was the number of days any substance was used (including alcohol, except tobacco) in the past 90 days. In addition, the variables ethnic identity, familism, and acculturation were included as cultural moderators in the analysis. Although both conditions produced significant decreases in substance use, the results did not support a time by treatment condition interaction; however, outcomes were moderated by ethnic identity and familism. The findings are discussed with implications for research and practice within the context of providing culturally relevant treatment for Latino adolescents with substance use disorders.

Applying for Grant Funding as a Counseling Psychologist From Thought to Action

Counseling psychologists can benefit from grant funding because it can support their research and training of doctoral students. Now more than ever, universities across the nation are encouraging faculty to seek funding from external sources. This reality creates an opportunity for counseling psychologists to develop grant writing skills and take their research to new levels by obtaining funding to support larger scale studies or clinical interventions. We seek to provide a resource for counseling psychologists and doctoral students that provides guidance and tips for successfully seeking and applying for grants that fit areas of research common in our field. Topics covered in this article include how to get involved in the grant writing process, obtaining mentorship, crafting a successful application, and understanding the outcome of a grant review. Grant funding is an attainable goal for counseling psychologists at all stages of their training and career.

Relationship between Perceived and Actual Frequency Represented by Common Rating Scale Labels.

Two experiments investigated the relationship between subjective interpretation of frequency terms and corresponding objective values. Evidence supported the existence of a nonlinear relationship that is well described by a logarithmic function. The general form of this relationship was consistent across different methods of eliciting subjective frequency estimates and different frequency response scales. These findings, in combination with prior research, suggest that individuals can be highly accurate in reporting the frequency of prior experiences but that subjective reports using common frequency response scales and scoring methods should not be taken to reflect equal intervals of actual frequency. This bears similarity to psychophysical relationships observed between sensation and stimulus intensity, and it has implications for the interpretation and analysis of self-report measures that use Likert-type frequency response scales.

Acculturation in a Pretreatment Sample of Latino Adolescents A Confirmatory Factor Analytic Study

The Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans–II (ARSMA-II) is one of the most widely used measures of acculturation for Latinos. While the ARSMA-II is used quite often, there has been little research examining the latent factor structure of the measure. Furthermore, there has only been one prior study examining the factor structure with a sample of Latino adolescents. The primary purpose of the current study is to test three competing factor models of a brief version of the ARSMA-II in a pretreatment sample of Latino adolescents (n = 106). Results from confirmatory factor analyses supported a nine-item two-factor structure for the sample in this study. A path analysis indicated that one of the factors was predictive of depressive symptoms but was mediated by the cultural variables familism and ethnic identity. The implications of study findings and suggestions for further refinement of this measure are discussed.