In the last two decades, Latino population growth has exceeded that of all other racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. This growth has been particularly striking in Oregon, the site of this study, and in 21 similar states with emerging immigrant communities. Rapid population growth, when combined with unprepared health and social service systems, can significantly contribute to Latino health disparities. Parenting practices have long been implicated as a key influence on family and child health. The proposed study involves collaboration between the University of Oregon's Center for Equity Promotion (CEQP) and Farmworker Housing Development Corporation (FHDC) and is designed in three phases: (1) collaboration advancement and community needs assessment (n = 95);(2) intervention development;and (3) intervention feasibility and initial efficacy trial {n= 120 families;210 parents, 120 youth). The intervention would be delivered with Spanish-speaking Latino parents who live in FHDC housing developments and would focus on those malleable behaviors (e.g., parenting practices, stress management, healthy nutrition, and physical activity) that can promote Latino family health and youth well-being. The study's specific aims are: (1) to create a sustainable structure for ongoing, community-empowered research by building on our existing collaborative community partnership;(2) to identify key family-based health behaviors that confer risk for and protection against negative physical and behavioral health outcomes (e.g., overweight and obesity, respiratory illness, substance use, depression, and youth problem behaviors) among FHDC families, through a collaboratively designed and implemented mixed methods needs assessment;(3) to develop, refine, and manual-ize an intervention that adapts promising practices from community and evidence-based interventions shown to impact behavioral and physical health outcomes for immigrant Latino families, and emphasizes family resilience, strong parenting practices, and family health-promoting behaviors;and (4) to examine the feasibility and initial efficacy of the intervention in terms of promoting healthy famiy behaviors that reduce risk for negative physical and behavioral health outcomes.
This community-based participatory research study aims to identify priority areas and malleable factors that, if positively influenced through an interventio targeting family health, could have broad ripple effects for reducing disease, including chronic conditions, among Latinos.
