Perceptions of Latinx immigrant mothers of a culturally adapted evidence-based dyadic intervention

• In Event: What do parents want? Results-based interventions to promote family engagement and positive parent-child outcomes

Abstract

Background: For Latinx families who immigrate to the United States, trauma is often a factor closely tied to the migration journey (Cleaveland & Frankenfeld, 2019). Coping with the effects of trauma and adjusting to post-immigration life, which often include isolation and discrimination, present barriers to healthy development of parents and young children. With obstacles that Latinx parents face, supportive EBPs addressing trauma and adapted to meet their specific needs could be one solution, in-part, to combat difficulties and optimize parenting practices. Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) is an evidence-based intervention that addresses trauma for young children and parents. However, there is little research focused on how immigrant parents experience their participation. The aims of this study were to explore, 1) Latinx immigrant mothers’ perceptions of their relationships with bilingual/bicultural Latinx clinicians, and 2) how the mothers perceived interactions with their clinicians’ affected relationships with their children, understanding of children’s needs, and their own mental health.

Methods: As part of a larger program evaluation of culturally adapted CPP with Latinx immigrant mothers and their children (ages birth to five) focused on implementation and outcomes, qualitative interviews were conducted in Spanish with parents six months into treatment, at about the time of program completion (N=27; M age=33; 40% married; 33% employed). Interviewers asked participants about their relationship experiences with the bilingual/bicultural clinician, how they perceived her as a professional, and the changes they attributed to those experiences. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, translated, summarized, and reviewed. A code book was developed by RAs in consultation with the study’s PI and NVivo (version 12.0) was used to manage the coding process. The same RAs then used a thematic analysis approach, including line-by-line coding, and subsequent creation of concise themes and categories.

Results: Data analysis revealed that Latinx mothers who participated in CPP had positive perceptions of the overarching relationships with bilingual/bicultural clinicians. Notably, most of them perceived the clinicians as friends and some even saw them as part of their families. Simultaneously, the mothers described the clinicians as professionals who acted as guides from whom they could learn and receive support, both emotionally and materially. Furthermore, they reported that some of what they learned from the clinicians was about themselves as mothers and as people. Finally, most mothers described that the benefits of the intervention included explicit changes in parenting practices and how they viewed their children. These changes were perceived as attributable to relationships with the clinicians.

Conclusions: The findings show us the value of implementing clinical interventions with unique culturally specific adaptations that made it possible for the mothers to experience close, formal, and informal relationships with the clinicians. Offering an intervention in a native language with bicultural clinicians seemed to enable the mothers to feel comfortable enough to share difficult experiences and address their own and their children’s traumas. Further research should be conducted to gain greater understanding of how Latinx immigrant children may benefit developmentally from interventions implemented with cultural adaptations when parents are fully engaged.

Authors

• Ruth Paris, Boston University
  Presenting Author

• Meital Simhi

• Julia Lee