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Cultural Adaptation and Implementation of Family Evidence-Based Interventions with Diverse Populations

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Abstract

Family evidence-based interventions (FEBIs) are effective in creating lasting improvements and preventing children’s behavioral health problems, even in genetically at-risk children. Most FEBIs, however, were designed for English-speaking families. Consequently, providers have difficulty engaging non-English-speaking populations in their own country or in other countries where the content, language, and recruitment methods of the FEBIs do not reflect their culture. The practical solution has been to culturally adapt existing FEBIs. Research suggests this can increase family engagement by about 40 %. This article covers background, theory, and research on FEBIs and the need to engage more diverse families. Steps for culturally adapting FEBIs with fidelity are presented based on our own and local implementers’ experiences in 36 countries with the Strengthening Families Program. These steps, also previously recommended by a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime panel of experts in family skills interventions, include: (1) creating a cultural advisory group, (2) assessing specific needs of cultural subgroups, (3) language translation, (4) hiring implementers from the culture, (5) developing culturally adapted training systems, (6) making cultural adaptations cautiously during repeated delivery, (7) continuous implementation quality and outcome evaluation to assure effectiveness in comparison with the original FEBI, (8) developing local and international dissemination partnerships, and (9) securing funding support for sustainability. Future efficacy trials should compare existing FEBIs to culturally adapted versions to determine comparative cost effectiveness.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Drs. Melanie Domenech-Rodriguez, Anilena Mejia, Joan Amer, and Henry Whiteside for their thoughtful reviews and support in editing this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Promotion and Education, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Karol Kumpfer

  2. Polytechnic Institute of Viseu, Viseu, Portugal

    Catia Magalhães

  3. University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA

    Jing Xie

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  1. Karol Kumpfer
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  2. Catia Magalhães
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  3. Jing Xie
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Correspondence to Karol Kumpfer.

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Conflict of Interest

Dr. Kumpfer is the developer and has intellectual property rights to SFP and receives royalties for CDs/DVDs and consulting payments for SFP trainings and evaluations. Dr. Xie is a consultant on SFP evaluations. Dr. Magalhães was a consultant for SFP in Portugal but has no financial interests in SFP or other family EBIs.

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This article does not contain any original study results with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors. Informed Consent: Informed consent is not applicable for this review article.

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No specific government research funding was used to write this review article.

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Kumpfer, K., Magalhães, C. & Xie, J. Cultural Adaptation and Implementation of Family Evidence-Based Interventions with Diverse Populations. Prev Sci 18, 649–659 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-016-0719-3

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