Table 3 Description of the intervention sessions
Session | Participants | Goals for the session | Example activities |
|---|---|---|---|
1 Parenting Styles | Parents | Parents will: | Parents will: |
· Recognize their own parenting style. | · Review a video on parenting styles and discuss. | ||
· Distinguish the key elements of the positive parenting style. | · Self-assess their parenting styles and discuss in small groups. | ||
2 Between Multiple Worlds | Parents | Parents will: | Parents will: |
· Recognize that their strong family orientation as Latino parents protects against youth risk behavior. | · Identify their own cultural values as parents and compare/contrast with those of school and youth. | ||
· Understand that their youth must navigate between family, school, and peer cultures. | · Self-assess their own and their youth’s cultural orientation and reflect on differences. | ||
· Learn skills to help their youth navigate across cultures. | |||
3 Adolescent Development | Parents | Parents will: | Parents will: |
· Review normal adolescent development and the need to adapt parenting strategies to developmental stages. | · Compare the behaviors of their youth with previous years. | ||
· Contextualize challenging behavior within tasks of adolescent development. | · Reflect on why adolescents challenge parents and how not to ‘take it personally’. | ||
4 Communication | Parents and youth | Parents will: | Parents will: |
· Understand how strong communication fits with the values of respect for authority and confianza (trusting relationships). | · Practice active listening. | ||
· Discuss barriers and facilitators to conversations with youth. | |||
· Learn basic principles of good communication and develop communication skills. | · Practice communication using ‘I’ messages. | ||
Youth will: | Youth will: | ||
· Recognize the importance of communication with parents. | · Play the broken phone and identify barriers in communication. | ||
· Learn specific communication skills. | · Practice when and how to talk and listen. | ||
· Practice ‘I’ messages. | |||
5 Discipline | Parents | Parents will: | Parents will: |
· Learn the importance of positive behavioral reinforcement. | · Identify strategies to encourage positive behavior in their youth. | ||
· Understand the importance of establishing negotiable and non-negotiable rules, and establishing and reinforcing consequences. | · Practice developing negotiable and non-negotiable rules for their family. | ||
6 Conflict resolution | Parents and youth | Parents will: | Parents will: |
· Understand that conflict is part of the normal developmental process, and does not need to damage their relationships. | · Identify positive and negative aspects of conflicts. | ||
· Identify collaborative problem-solving and conflict resolution strategies. | · Discuss and role-play a strategy to solve problems with their youth. | ||
· Learn to recognize and self-regulate emotions. | · Develop strategies to manage anger. | ||
Youth will: | Youth will: | ||
· Learn collaborative problem-solving strategies. | · Talk about rules, consequences and mistakes. | ||
· Identify strategies to recognize and manage emotions. | · Talk about emotions and their consequences. | ||
· Name the steps to effectively solve problems. | |||
7 Supervision and Friends’ Influence | Parents and youth | Parents will: | Parents will: |
· Understand the meaning and importance of monitoring. | · Discuss scenarios to differentiate supervision from over-control. | ||
· Learn strategies to monitor their youth effectively at each developmental stage of adolescence. | · Role-play initiating conversations with parents of their children’s friends. | ||
Youth will: | Youth will: | ||
· Identify dreams that they want to achieve. | · Develop a collage to help visualize dreams and goals. | ||
· Identify influences and behavior (including substance use) that may get in the way of achieving dreams. | · Practice strategies to refuse risky behaviors. | ||
· Learn strategies to avoid problem behaviors. | |||
8 Connection | Parents and youth | Parents will: | Parents will: |
· Understand that parent–youth connection is the foundation for parenting, and recognize barriers to relationship-building. | · Engage in activity around setting kids as priority for time. | ||
· Identify strategies to strengthen their relationship with their youth. | · Write a letter to their children expressing their love and expectations. | ||
Youth will: | Youth will: | ||
· Reflect on the importance of a strong parent–youth relation. | · Complete a map of personal connections. | ||
· Identify parents and other adults as a support network. | · Write a message to their parents expressing their thankfulness. |