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Retaining Ethnic Minority Parents in a Preventive Intervention: The Quality of Group Process

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This study examined relations between group process variables and retention of ethnic minority (African American and Hispanic) caregivers in a family-focused preventive intervention. Data from the Familias Unidas/SEPI project (Coatsworth, Pantin, & Szapocznik, 2002), a randomized, controlled intervention trial, were used to cluster participants according to their patterns of retention over 30 intervention sessions. These person-centered analyses identified three broad patterns: (a) dropouts; (b) variable-attenders; and (c) consistent-high-attenders. Two subgroups of the variable-attender group were also identified: (a) intermittent-attenders, and (b) continual-attenders. Discriminant Function Analysis (DFA) with follow-up Analysis of Variance tested for differences among the three main retention groups on facilitator ratings of participants’ general level of participation, leadership, positive alliance with the group, and negative alliance with the group during the first half of the intervention. Leadership and positive alliance significantly discriminated the broad retention patterns. Mean level of participation was not significantly different across retention groups. Results of DFA and ANOVA analyses using leadership, alliance, and participation variables from the first and second halves of the intervention indicated only leadership and positive alliance during the second half of the intervention discriminated continual-attenders from intermittent-attenders.

Editors’ Strategic Implications: The authors describe a promising approach to studying facilitators’ assessments of client involvement in a family-focused preventive intervention. The quality of the participants’ behavior during sessions, rather than their absolute levels of participation, predicted their pattern of retention in the program. Future comparisons of facilitator and parent views may prove helpful.

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Notes

  1. This cutpoint of 60% corresponds roughly to the rates of parent participation in the Fast Track study (Orrell-Valente et al., 1999) and to the average number of sessions attended by families in the Linking the Interests of Families and Teachers (LIFT) intervention conducted by the Oregon Social Learning Center (Reid et al., 1999).

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study was funded by Center for Substance Abuse Prevention Grant 1 UR6 SPO7961 to José Szapocznik, Principal Investigator. We thank the families who participated and the three facilitators who led the intervention groups: Cecilia Ferro, Dolores Perdomo, and Monica Zarate.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Pennsylvania State University, 110 South Henderson Building, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    J. Douglas Coatsworth & Larissa G. Duncan

  2. Center for Family Studies, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, USA

    Hilda Pantin & José Szapocznik

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  1. J. Douglas Coatsworth
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  2. Larissa G. Duncan
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  3. Hilda Pantin
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  4. José Szapocznik
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Correspondence to J. Douglas Coatsworth.

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Coatsworth, J.D., Duncan, L.G., Pantin, H. et al. Retaining Ethnic Minority Parents in a Preventive Intervention: The Quality of Group Process. J Primary Prevent 27, 367–389 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10935-006-0043-y

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