Cultural Adaptations to a Family Life Skills Program: Implementation in Rural Appalachia

Abstract

Numerous parent education programs have been developed to provide parents with the skills and support necessary to effectively improve their parenting abilities. The Strengthening Families Program (SFP) employs a "family skills training" approach for parents and their children (ages 6 to 10). This study focuses on the implementation and outcomes of a culturally adapted SFP in southwestern Virginia, an area known for its Appalachian culture. Two groups were compared (those that received an adapted curricula and those that did not) on retention rates, parental outcomes, child outcomes, and program satisfaction. Retention rates were significantly improved for those participants in the adapted curricula group; however, parent and child outcomes were not affected. Statistically significant improvements for parents were found in effective discipline practices, family cohesion, family conflict, confidence in parenting, and punishment practices; and for both groups of children in increased child social skills and closeness to mothers between pre- and post-test times.

The Sustainability of Evidence-Based Interventions and Practices in Public Health and Health Care

“…For example, there is evidence that family-based interventions to reduce substance use reach more minority participants if they are adapted to fit local culture and context (e.g., to reflect sociocultural values of Hispanic populations and rural settings) (59,69,82). However, in some cases, major adaptations may be made to the core program components due to preference or limited time and resources, despite evidence that those core components are effective and/or necessary to address the needs of different populations (43).…”

Perceptions of Nursing in Appalachia: A State of the Science Paper

“…The Appalachian region has an excessively high rate of diabetes at 12.5% as compared with the national rate of 8.6% . However, self-sufficiency and pride in independence prevalent in the Appalachian culture (Marek, Brock, & Sullivan, 2006) support the theory of diabetes selfmanagement for Appalachians. Jessee and Rutledge (2012) found participants who took part in the diabetes self-management intervention had improvements in blood glucose levels, A1C levels, and self-management over control group participants.…”

Strategies to Avoid Replication Failure With Evidence-Based Prevention Interventions: Case Examples From the Strengthening Families Program

“…The program also improves mental health outcomes, increases personal resilience, reduces delinquency, violence, and aggression and has positive effects on academic performance by reducing school behavior problems including early dropout (Kumpfer, Xie, & Hu, 2011). Importantly, SFP has been shown to work well with all types of families—not just those that are considered “high risk” including rural (Kumpfer, Alvarado, Tait, & Turner, 2002; Marek, Brock, & Sullivan, 2006) and urban settings (Aktan, Kumpfer, & Turner, 1996) and with different age groups (Kumpfer, Greene, Allen, & Miceli, 2010).…”