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Architectural features that facilitate direct, in-person interactions may be beneficial for Hispanic elders' mental health.

This special section has a dual focus. One is on psychotherapy change research. The other is to explicate an approach to develop a program of research that builds on 2 aspects of scientific discovery: decomposition of observed phenomena and localization of specific elements that may combine to produce a complex whole. These aspects are considered within an ordered framework of 8 steps in the development and testing of a model, moving from discovery to model construction, validation, and prediction of complex outcomes. Studies on psychotherapy change processes were selected, after a masked review, to represent different levels in developing a program of research. Although it is argued that the early steps of decomposition and localization are important when developing a program of research, current editorial practices in first-tier journals, including the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, typically consider this type of study to be too preliminary for a scientific archival journal. Should this practice be revisited?

This paper reports a test of the efficacy of Familias Unidas, a Hispanic-specific, ecologically focused, parent-centered preventive intervention, in promoting protection against and reducing risk for adolescent behavior problems. Specifically, the intervention was designed to foster parental investment, reduce adolescent behavior problems, and promote adolescent school bonding/academic achievement, all protective factors against drug abuse and delinquency. One-hundred sixty seven Hispanic families of 6th and 7th grade students from three South Florida public schools were stratified by grade within school and randomly assigned to intervention and no-intervention control conditions. Results indicated that Familias Unidas was efficacious in increasing parental investment and decreasing adolescent behavior problems, but that it did not significantly impact adolescent school bonding/academic achievement. Summer-vacation rates of adolescent behavior problems were six times higher in the control condition than in the intervention condition. Furthermore, change in parental investment during the intervention was predictive of subsequent levels of adolescent behavior problems. The findings suggest that Familias Unidas is efficacious in promoting protection and reducing risk for adolescent problem behaviors in poor immigrant Hispanic families.

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