Engaging Latino Families in a Sibling-Focused Family Prevention Program

Enhancing the lives of Latino youth and families through evidence-based prevention programs designed to promote positive adjustment and reduce risk is of high public health significance. An important component of evidence-based prevention is successfully engaging participants. The goals of this study were twofold: (a) to describe children's and their caregivers' engagement in a novel family-focused prevention program targeting sibling relationships and parenting of siblings in Latino families and (b) to investigate caregiver and family cultural factors as predictors of program engagement from a socio-ecological perspective. Participants were 158 Latino families who were randomly assigned to the intervention condition and participated in pre- and post-program data collection. Attendance was high, as children averaged 9.82 of 12 sessions (SD = 2.90) and children and at least one caregiver averaged 2.28 of 3 family nights (SD = 0.92). Furthermore, caregiver ratings of program experiences indicated high satisfaction and enjoyment, and qualitative responses illustrated parents' perceived program benefits. Economic hardship was positively associated with family night attendance and program expectations for fathers, and with less clear program expectations for mothers. Mothers' familial ethnic socialization and fathers' familism values were associated with higher program satisfaction and clearer program expectations. In addition, fathers' familism was associated with higher family night attendance. Higher Anglo cultural orientations were related to mothers' lower attendance and fathers' clearer program expectations. Discussion considers factors associated with variability in program engagement in sibling-focused family-based prevention with Latinos and offers future directions. Registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, trial registration number NCT03706014, Intervention study start date 2018-09-29 and study completion date 2025-09-30.