Development of a transdiagnostic, resilience-focused intervention for at-risk adolescents

Figures & data

Figure 1. CONSORT diagrams.

Table 1. Adolescent participant characteristics (n = 28).

Measure	Mean ± SD	Percent (%)
Age (years) at baseline	12.5 ± 1.1
Grade at baseline	6.6 ± 1.2
Parent age at baseline*	37.1 ± 5.5
Gender	Female	43
	Male	57
Ethnicity	Hispanic	96
	Non-Hispanic	0
	Other	4
Race	White	14
	Unknown	59^+
	Other	29^+
	American Indian/Alaska Native	7
Primary language spoken at home	Spanish	82
	English	14
	Portuguese	4
Parental highest education level	No education	3.6
	Grade school	14.3
	Grades 6–8	14.3
	Some high school	17.9
	High school graduate	35.7
	GED	3.6
	Some college	7.1
	Missing	3.6
Annual household income*	Less than $10,000	11.8
	$10,000–15,000	17.7
	$15,000–20,000	5.9
	$20,000–25,000	17.7
	$25,000–35,000	0
	$35,000–50,000	17.7
	$50,000–75,000	11.8
	$75,000 or greater	0
	Missing	17.7

*Not collected in Cohort 1. In Cohort 2, two parents did not report their age.

⁺Of these, some participants chose to write in “Latina,” “Hispanic,” “Espana,” or “Brazilian”; the remainder of participants did not provide a response. Race data are often missing or misidentified in Hispanic research participants (Eisenhower et al., 2014).

Table 2. Qualitative data – parent feedback (cohorts 2 and 3).

Understanding/communicating with their children I liked the way they explained to understand how my son is feeling and understand why he is feeling that way- I was raised old style when parents were tough. How to speak to youth about topics that interest him, speak to youth about trying things, motivating him and negotiating with him. Communicating better with my child, now I understand that the attitude changes in my child are normal and I need to be patient. Kids can say something but they mean another thing, I ask “How was you [sic] day?” and they will say “It was ok” but then close themselves off in their room, not everything is actually okay, their emotions change every day. Can’t keep secrets from our kids, need to be open with them, if we punish them we need to know exactly why and the kids need to understand why they are being punished and what they did wrong.

Self-regulation skills I learned a lot [about] how to relax, to take a minute… and then I feel more relaxed. How to stay calm to be able to calm my child, when my child wants something how to come to an agreement and compromise (for example, if he wants to walk to school and I want him to take the bus, we can agree that he will walk there but take the bus back). To control situations, observe your breathing and concentrate on your breathing, [which helps me know] how to speak to my son and find good moments to speak and listen to him and understand what he is saying. Now we speak a bit more and I try to not get angry with her and try to solve problems.

Information from/shared experiences with other parents Every parent collaborated by sharing their opinions and listening to other people’s opinions. Listening to the opinion of every parent and hearing how all kids are different. Able to interact among parents, understand that the problem is not just me but also the home environment, everyone can learn from everyone else. I liked that there was a lot of trust with parents, that we were able to talk openly.

Parents reported that, during the parent sessions, they learned new ways to (1) understand the emotions of their children and communicate with them, and (2) regulate their own emotions during challenging parenting situations. They also described benefiting from hearing about the opinions and experiences of the other parents. Below are examples of statements that parents made during the feedback assessment that fall into these three categories/themes.

Figure 2. Following the intervention, participants were more likely to label neutral faces as happy (baseline: happy: 3.6% ± 1.9%; post-intervention: happy: 7.8% ± 3.0%, F(1,15)=5.5, p = 0.034), but there was no significant pre-post change in rates of labeling neutral faces as fearful or angry. *p < .05.

Eisenhower, A., Suyemoto, K., Lucchese, F., & Canenguez, K. (2014). “Which box should I check?”: Examining standard check box approaches to measuring race and ethnicity. Health Services Research, 49(3), 1034–1055. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6773.12132

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