Mary L. Harthun

Using Community Based Participatory Research to Create a Culturally Grounded Intervention for Parents and Youth to Prevent Risky Behaviors

The principal goal of this article is to contribute to the field of prevention science by providing a sequential description of how Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) was used to develop a parent education curriculum aimed at preventing and decreasing adolescent drug use and risky sexual behaviors. CBPR principles are outlined, and information is provided on the unique contributions of researchers and community members who came together to develop this parent education program. Focus group information is presented as an exemplar to illustrate how thematic content from focus groups was used to inform the development of this parent education curriculum. A step by step description is given to facilitate replication of this process by other prevention researchers who are interested in applying this CBPR approach to develop a culturally responsive parent education intervention.

Implementing a Prevention Curriculum An Effective Researcher-Teacher Partnership

Researchers from social work, education, and communications worked with practicing teachers to create and implement a curriculum around four culturally grounded prevention strategies in urban southwestern schools. The project proposed to test the effectiveness of various degrees of ethnic sensitivity in school-based drug prevention curricula developed around three different models, including a Latino, a non-Latino (Euro-American), and a multicultural (Latino, Euro-American, and African American) model, based on the cultural norms of these dominant populations. Collaboration with schools to implement the curriculum and to administer pretest and posttest surveys to students was accomplished by developing a strong partnership with teachers. Significant trends in urban drug prevention education and at least four essential conclusions about conducting effective school-based research surfaced from the implementation of this study.

American Indian Cultures: How CBPR Illuminated Intertribal Cultural Elements Fundamental to an Adaptation Effort

The ever-increasing numbers of ethnic minority populations in the USA seeking social services suggest that a “multicultural paradigm shift” is underway and gaining speed. This shift will increasingly demand that prevention programs and interventions be more culturally responsive. Interventions that are not aligned with prospective participants’ world views and experiences are only minimally effective. Existing models for conducting culturally grounded program adaptations emphasize identifying distinct levels of cultural influences while preserving core elements of the original intervention. An effective adaptation requires competent language translation as well as trained translations of program concepts and principles that will be meaningful to the targeted group, without compromising program fidelity. This article describes how a university research team and curriculum developers worked with American Indian youth and adults in a large southwestern city using a CBPR process to identify cultural elements that became foundational to the adaptation of a prevention curriculum that is a national model program, with the objective of increasing its applicability for urban native youth.

Culture in the Classroom: Developing Teacher Proficiency in Delivering a Culturally-grounded Prevention Curriculum

The authors describe the training model used to develop proficiency in teaching a culturally-grounded prevention curriculum. Teachers believed it vital to discuss substance use and considered culture and ethnicity central to students’ lives, although few had experience teaching prevention curricula. Training effects were evaluated using three datasets. Analyses showed that training should emphasize teaching adult learners; encompass culture from many perspectives; address the teaching of prevention curricula, and emphasize fidelity as imperative. Trainers found the embedded focus on culture in keepin’ it REAL essential to success. Teachers learned that a prevention curriculum can be instructionally engaging while theory-driven and academically rigorous.

Agarra el momento/seize the moment: Developing communication activities for a drug prevention intervention with and for Latino families in the US Southwest.

This article presents the development of parent–child communication activities by applying Community-Based Participatory Research and focus group methodology. Three parent–child communication activities were developed to enhance an already efficacious parenting intervention: (1) agarra el momento or seize the moment uses everyday situations to initiate conversations about substance use, (2) hay que adelantarnos or better sooner than later stresses being proactive about addressing critical issues with youth, and (3) setting rules and expectations engages parents in establishing rules and expectations for healthy and effective conversations with youth. Focus group data are presented to illustrate how thematic content from the focus groups was used to inform the development of the activities and, furthermore, how such methods supported the development of a culturally grounded intervention.

Community-Based Effectiveness Trials as a Means to Disseminate Evidence-Based and Culturally Responsive Behavioral Health Interventions

This article adds to the existing knowledge about innovative community-based approaches used to reduce and eliminate behavioral health disparities. Special attention is given to culturally appropriate interventions that increase access to care and that improve the quality of behavioral health services across different geographic regions and communities. Effectiveness trials are presented as appropriate tools to translate existing efficacious interventions into real-world settings. This article describes how to transition from efficacy to effectiveness, including factors essential to consider from the perspectives of university-based research teams and community-based organizations (CBOs). A case study illustrates how a university-CBO partnership mastered the complexities of transitioning an efficacious family intervention to a community setting while nurturing a new partnership. Included are implications of the study related to social work education and social work practice. Lessons learned about critical components of the community-based research collaboration and recommendations for future research are provided.

Parenting in 2 Worlds: Effects of a Culturally Adapted Intervention for Urban American Indians on Parenting Skills and Family Functioning.

Parenting in 2 Worlds (P2W) is a culturally grounded parenting intervention that addresses the distinctive social and cultural worlds of urban American Indian (AI) families. P2W was culturally adapted through community-based participatory research in three urban AI communities with diverse tribal backgrounds. This paper reports the immediate outcomes of P2W in a randomized controlled trial, utilizing data from 575 parents of AI children (ages 10–17). Parents were assigned to P2W or to the comparison group, an informational family health curriculum, Healthy Families in 2 Worlds (HF2W). Both the P2W and HF2W curricula consisted of 10 workshops delivered weekly by AI community facilitators. Pretests were administered at the first workshop and a post-test at the last workshop. Tests of the efficacy of P2W versus HF2W on parenting skills and family functioning were analyzed with pairwise t tests, within intervention type, and by baseline adjusted path models using FIML estimation in Mplus. Intervention effect sizes were estimated with Cohen’s d. Participants in P2W reported significant improvements in parental agency, parenting practices, supervision and family cohesion, and decreases in discipline problems and parent-child conflict. Compared to HF2W, P2W participants reported significantly larger increases in parental self-agency and positive parenting practices, and fewer child discipline problems. Most of these desired program effects for P2W approached medium size. Culturally adapted parenting interventions like P2W can effectively strengthen parenting practices and family functioning among urban AI families and help address their widespread need for targeted, culturally grounded programs.