Guide to Effective Programs
for Children and Youth

 

Familias Unidas

 

OVERVIEW

 

Familias Unidas is a program that aims to increase parents’ involvement in their adolescent’s home- and school-life. Through facilitator-led group discussion sessions with other parents and in-home discussions with their adolescent, parents gain an understanding of the importance of their engagement, and how to use parenting skills to decrease problem behaviors. In one evaluation, there were significant positive program impacts on parental engagement and adolescent behavior problems. In another, there were positive impacts on adolescents’ safe sexual behavior, reduced adolescent substance use, and on family functioning.

 

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

 

Target population: Hispanic adolescents and their parents.

 

Familias Unidas uses several strategies to promote parent-child engagement and interaction.  Parental involvement is encouraged through offering problem-scenarios and participatory exercises.  Group discussion is used to help parents understand their importance in protecting their child from harm.  Program activities allow parents to interact with their child’s peers, connect to their child’s peer network, and facilitate their child’s interaction with positive peer influences. School counselors visit parents to increase their connection with their child’s school experience.  Planned in-home parent-child discussion sessions are designed to strengthen bonds within the family .  Parent groups meet with facilitators. During the first stage of the group, the goal is to engage parents in the program and create cohesion among the group.  In the second stage, facilitators discuss parents’ concerns about the child: in the family, with peers, and in school.  In the third stage, parents learn the skills necessary to decrease adolescent problem behavior and increase bonding with school and academic achievement.  Home visits are used during the third stage.

 

Group facilitators have at least a master’s-level education, and have an average of five years of clinical experience.  Facilitators are trained in sensitivity towards Hispanic and American culture.  Facilitators are trained across three 8-hour days and facilitate six sessions. The program package, which includes training, adherence- monitoring and supervision, and evaluation assistance, costs $50,000.

 

EVALUATIONS

 

Pantin, H., Coatsworth, J. D., Feaster, D. J., Newman, F. L., Briones, E., Prado, G., Schwartz, S. J., & Szapocznik, J. (2003). Familias Unidas: The efficacy of an intervention to promote parental investment in Hispanic immigrant families. Prevention Science, 4(3).

 

Evaluated population: 167 Hispanic 6th and 7th grade students residing with at least one Hispanic immigrant parent and having no history of psychiatric hospitalization were evaluated.  Participants were from low-income areas of Miami, FL (median household income was between $15,000 and $20,000).  The mean age of adolescents was 12.4 years, and ancestry among the group was 39 percent Cuban, 29 percent Central American, 17 percent South American, 5 percent Puerto Rican or Dominican, and 10 percent “other” Hispanic.  94 percent of parents, and 49 percent of students, were born outside of the U.S.  The median duration parents had lived in the US was 11 years.

 

Approach: After meeting study inclusion criteria, 96 adolescents and their families were randomly assigned to the Familias Unidas experimental condition, and 71 adolescents and their families were randomly assigned to a no-treatment control condition. Parent groups meet weekly in one-hour sessions for nine months. Participants were assessed at baseline, and at three, six, nine, and twelve months, on a variety of measures.  Parental engagementwas measured using the Parenting Practices Scale, and the Social Support Appraisal Scale, and includes positive aspects of parenting, such as encouragement, validation, support, and involvement.  Adolescent behavior problems were assessed byparent and adolescent report using the Revised Behavior Problem Checklist, Conners-Wells Self-Report Scale, Interpersonal Competence Inventory, and Behavior Scale Part I.  Adolescents’ school bonding and academic achievement were measured using the School Attitudes/Bonding Scale, Adolescent Competence Scale, Interpersonal Competence Scale, and the Piers-Harris Children’s Self-Concept Scale.

 

Results: There were significant positive differences in parental engagement and adolescent behavior problems over time for the experimental group.  There were no significant impacts on adolescents’ school bonding/academic achievement.  

 

Pantin, H., Prado, G., Lopez, B., Huang, S., Tapia, M. I., Schwartz, S. J., Sabillon, E., Brown, C. H., Branchini, J. (2009). A randomized controlled trial of Familias Unidas for Hispanic adolescents with behavioral problems. American Psychosomatic Society Psychosom Med, 71(9).

 

Evaluated population: 213 Hispanic 8th grade students (136 boys and 77 girls) were evaluated based on  high rankings according to parent reports of behavior problems. Adolescents resided with at least one Hispanic immigrant parent and attended at least one of three targeted, predominantly Hispanic, middle schools located within the Miami-Dade County, Florida, school district. Families were from low-income backgrounds (13 percent reported household incomes of less than $30,000). The mean age of adolescents was 13.8 years;, A slight majority of adolescents (n=93) and parents were primarily born in Honduras (27 percent), Cuba (20 percent) and Nicaragua (16 percent). Of the foreign- born adolescents, 37 percent (n=34) had been living in the United States for less than three years, 45 percent (n=42) between three to 10 years, and 18 percent (n=17) for more than 10 years.

 

Approach: After meeting study inclusion criteria, 109 adolescents and their families were randomly assigned to the experimental condition, and 104 to a community control condition, in which families were given three referrals to agencies that serve youth with behavior problems. Participants were assessed at baseline, and at 6, 18, and 30 months, on a variety of measures including family functioning, substance use, sexual risk behaviors, and externalizing behavior problems. Program dosage for the families in the experimental group included nine 2-hour group sessions, ten 1-hour family visits, and four 1-hour booster sessions.

 

Results: There were positive impacts on adolescents’ substance useand  condom usage, and on family functioning. There were no differences in parent-reported youth externalizing behavior problems or parent involvement.

 

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

 

Hilda Pantin, PhD

Center for Family Studies

Department of Epidemiology and Public Health

Miller School of MedicineUniversity of Miami

1425 NW 10th Ave, 3rd Floor

Miami, FL 33136

hpantin@med.miami.edu

305-243-2343

 

Website: http://www.mionline.org/article.php?id=41

 

References

 

Pantin, H., Coatsworth, J. D., Feaster, D. J., Newman, F. L., Briones, E., Prado, G., Schwartz, S. J., & Szapocznik, J. (2003). Familias Unidas: The efficacy of an intervention to promote parental investment in Hispanic immigrant families. Prevention Science, 4(3).

 

Pantin, H., Prado, G., Lopez, B., Huang, S., Tapia, M. I., Schwartz, S. J., Sabillon, E., Brown, C. H., Branchini, J. (2009). A randomized controlled trial of Familias Unidas for Hispanic adolescents with behavioral problems. American Psychosomatic Society Psychosom Med, 71(9).

 

 

KEYWORDS: Adolescents (12-17), Hispanic/Latino, Urban, Parent and Family Component, Condom Use, Other Behavior Problems, Other Substance Use, Parent-Child Relationship, Other Education, Academic Achievement/Grades, High Risk, Home visitation, Cost, Manual

 

Program information last updated 10/28/2011.


   © Child Trends 2003