Promoting Resilience with the ¡Unidos Se Puede! Program: An Example of Translational Research for Latino Families

• Author: Ronald B. Cox
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12265
• Published date: 01 October 2017
• Date: 01 October 2017

R B. C J. Oklahoma State University

Promoting Resilience with the ¡Unidos Se Puede!

Program: An Example of Translational Research for

Latino Families

Objective: To illustrate the use of T3 transla-

tional researchin the development of a culturally

appropriate intervention targeting Latino immi-

grant youth and their families.

Background: Demographers estimate that 88%

of U.S. population growth over the next 50years

will be from immigrants and their offspring.

Much of this growth will come from indi-

viduals of Latino heritage. One reason for

the lag in developing effective interventions

for this rapidly expanding population is the

inherent complexity that accompanies working

with immigrant populations. In T3 transla-

tional research, much of this complexity is

managed by generating research closer to the

actual setting of practice. Investigators adopt

a community-based participatory research

(CBPR) approach that incorporates practi-

tioners, community stakeholders, and members

of the target population to explore ways of

applying recommendations from research for

use in real-world settings.

Department of Human Development and Family Science,

Center for Family Resilience, 700 N. Greenwood Ave.,Main

Hall 2120, Oklahoma State University, Tulsa, OK 74106

(r.cox@okstate.edu).

[Correction made on 11/7, after rst online publication: On

page 8, Juntos Para una Mejor Educación was mistakenly

listed twice as Unidos Para una Mejor Educación. This has

been corrected to reect the proper name of the program.]

KeyWords:Academic achievement, early adolescent, Latino,

parent involvement, translational research.

Method: We followed the development of the

¡Unidos Se Puede! (United We Can!) program

to illustrate the process of T3 translational

research with a Latino immigrant population.

Results: Initial program impact indicated a

29% increase in grade point average from Time

1 to Time 2, and absences and tardiness were

reduced.

Conclusion: The feasibility and acceptance of

¡Unidos Se Puede! implemented with Latino

parents and youth offers evidence of usefulness

of CBPR to address the complexity of transla-

tional research with immigrant populations.

Implications: There is an urgent need for T3

translational research that develops novel pre-

vention approaches to help immigrant parents

raise healthy and thriving children.

Prevention researchers have produced a grow-

ing number of evidenced-based interventions

(EBIs) with demonstrated efcacy in dimin-

ishing childhood behavioral health problems,

promoting social competencies and academic

performance among youth, and nurturing fam-

ily resilience (Van Ryzin, Kumpfer, Fosco, &

Greenberg, 2016). Family-based interventions

are among the most efcacious EBIs for address-

ing behavioral problems in youth, typically pro-

ducing effect sizes substantially greater than do

approaches focused on youth alone (Kumpfer,

2014). Still, most family EBIs were neither

developed for nor adapted to meet the needs

of minority groups (Falicov, 2009). When they

712 Family Relations 66 (October 2017): 712–728

DOI:10.1111/fare.12265

Promoting Resilience with ¡Unidos Se Puede! 713

have been adapted, they often lack rigorous

testing to determine their cross-cultural equiv-

alence and efcacy (Kumpfer, Magalhães, Xie,

& Kanse, 2015). Because 88% of the projected

population growth in the United States over the

next 50 years will be due to immigrants and their

offspring (Pew Research Center, 2015), there is

an urgent need to translate research into pro-

grams that are culturally appropriate for these

families.

Underlining the need for culturally respon-

sive programs is an emerging body of empirical

evidence demonstrating the importance of con-

sidering culture in the development of EBIs. In

a review of the literature over the past decade,

Stein and Guzman (2015) found that among

the few studies testing culturally appropriate

family interventions for Latinos, most have

generally found positive impacts on child and

adolescent outcomes as well as parenting and

family processes. For example, Guiando a Niños

Activos, an adaptation of Parent–Child Interac-

tion Therapy (PCIT), outperformed nonadapted

PCIT in symptom reduction across multiple

measures (McCabe, Yeh, Garland, Lau, &

Chavez, 2005). Likewise, although not limited

to Latino families, two recent meta-analyses

found the effect sizes for interventions adapted

for cultural sensitivity were considerably higher

than those not adapted for cultural sensitivity

(Benish, Quintana, & Wampold, 2011; Smith,

Domenech Rodriguez, & Bernal, 2011).

Adapting interventions for Latino immigrants

in the United States is difcult. Limited avail-

ability of human of resources is a substantial

impediment to implementation, scalability, and

sustainability of programs addressing the needs

of Latino families (e.g., Buki & Piedra, 2011).

For example, most existing prevention programs

designed for Latino families, such as Familias

Unidas (Pantin et al., 2003), require bilingual

master’s-level clinicians in their delivery model.

In long-standing settlement areas such as Florida

and California, this is less of a problem. How-

ever, Latinos are increasingly migrating to non-

traditional settlement areas such as the Midwest

and Atlantic Southeast (Fry, 2008). In these new

settlement areas, there are critical gaps in human

and social services infrastructure and resources

to meet the needs of Latinos, including few

bilingual clinicians to deliver evidence-based

programs (Buki & Piedra, 2011).

Heterogeneity within the Latino population

also introduces substantial challenges to testing

cultural adaptations of family interventions.

Important cultural differences exist in language

and core values between subgroups, such as

the Gauchos of Argentina, the Mulatos of the

Caribbean, and the Chilangos of Mexico. Like-

wise, social experiences of daily life are very

different for undocumented families from Cen-

tral America relative to Puerto Rican families

who are U.S. citizens or Cubano families with

refugee status. Even within a single country,

variations in culture between urban and rural

populations or social class can often make adapt-

ing programs challenging. Furthermore, beyond

the cultural differences between regions and

nationalities, varying levels of acculturation to

U.S. society have been shown to moderate some

outcomes (Lueck & Wilson, 2011; Stein & Guz-

man, 2015). As a result of the complexity of the

immigrant experience, it has been suggested that

local prevention and treatment efforts for Latino

groups may need to be guided by research results

obtained from specic locales (e.g., Zemore

et al., 2016). Therefore, although recent research

points to the advantages of culturally sensitive

interventions for Latino families, a lack of rigor-

ously tested interventions, a lack of resources in

new settlement areas, and heterogeneity among

Latinos create formidable barriers to the transfer

of research ndings into existing programs for

Latino populations (Barrera, Castro, Strycher,

& Toobert, 2013; Fry, 2008).

The articles in this special section high-

light different aspects of translational research.

Within this context, the purpose of the present

article is to illustrate the use of T3 trans-

lational research in the development of a

culturally appropriate intervention targeting

Latino immigrant youth and their families. In

T3 translational research, investigators often

adopt a community-based participatory research

(CBPR) approach and work with practitioners

to explore ways of applying recommendations

from research for use in real-world settings, and

to investigate how the proposed interventions

work in these settings. Because of the emphasis

on real-world settings, T3 translational research

partners with knowledgeable stakeholders who

work with the target population during the

development, implementation, and evaluation

of the intervention.

Although still in its infancy, the ¡Unidos

Se Puede! (United We Can!) program is used

as an example to demonstrate the process of

translating research into a psychoeducational