The primary aim of the proposed study is to examine the impact of the HOPE (HIV prevention Outreach for Parents and Early adolescents) Family Program, a family-based HIV and drug abuse prevention program for early adolescent youth and their adult caregivers living in homeless shelters in New York City. The HOPE Family Program is comprised of existing, evidence-based HIV and drug abuse prevention components, specifically tailored for homeless adults and inner-city youth and their families (The Partnership for the Homeless, 2000; McKay, et al., 2000; McKay et al., 2004; in press; Spoth et al., 1999) and delivered by trained parent peer-facilitators in order to involve this often """"""""hard to reach,"""""""" yet vulnerable group of youth and their families. Social Action Theory (SAT) guides the integration of the, existing evidence-based prevention components which consist of: 1) a HIV prevention and drug use reduction curriculum for homeless adults in Tier II shelters (CDC & The Partnership for the Homeless, 2000); 2) the CHAMP (Collaborative HIV prevention and Adolescent Mental health Program) Family Program (McKay et al., 2000), a family-based HIV prevention program that targets inner-city youth and their families at pre and early adolescence (prior to the onset of sexual activity) and 3) drug abuse prevention content drawn from the Family Strengthening Program (Spoth et al., 1999).
The specific aims of the proposed project are: 1) to examine.the short-term and longitudinal impact of the HOPE Family Program on: a) youth sexual and drug use debut and; b) youth sexual and drug risk taking behavior; 2) to examine the impact of the HOPE Family Program on: a) parental monitoring and supervision skills; b) family communication regarding puberty, sexuality, HIV risk and substance use; c) within family support; d) use of social support and social service resources; e) youth peer negotiation and problem solving skills; f) parent and youth HIV and substance abuse .knowledge, and attitudes; g) youth future orientation and self esteem and; 3) to test the impact of background (e.g. gender of youth, age, length of homelessness; disruption in educational placement) and contextual factors (parental substance abuse, mental health difficulties, racial socialization parenting practices and ethnic identity, parenting stress) on youth and: family-level:'6utcorhes/ A sample of 336 early adolescent youth (11 to 14 years) and their families nested within stratified blocks of randomly selected Tier II shelters (n=10) will be assigned to one of two study conditions: 1) HOPE Family Program or; 2) a comparison condition consisting of HIV and drug abuse prevention information delivered by trained health educators via weekly shelter community meetings. Assessments will be conducted at pretest, posttest, 6 and 18-month follow-up. The investigative team has a substantial commitment and expertise in conducting prevention research with """"""""hard to reach"""""""" youth and families. The proposed study is built upon a partnership that grounds the project is both a practical understanding of the needs of homeless families and strong inner-city youth and family focused preventative intervention expertise (via collaboration with the CHAMP Collaborative Board and the Health Bridge Community Outreach Project).
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| McKay, Mary M; Gopalan, Geetha; Franco, Lydia M et al. (2010) It Takes a Village to Deliver and Test Child and Family-Focused Services. Res Soc Work Pract 20:476-482 |
| Messam, Taiwanna; McKay, Mary M; Kalogerogiannis, Kosta et al. (2010) Adapting A Family-Based HIV Prevention Program for Homeless Youth and Their Families: The HOPE (HIV prevention Outreach for Parents and Early adolescents) Family Program. J Hum Behav Soc Environ 20:303-318 |
