Conducting Research with Latino Families: Examination of Strategies to Improve Recruitment, Retention, and Satisfaction with an At-Risk and Underserved Population

Difficulty recruiting and retaining Latino participants in clinical research may contribute to the limited number of studies addressing the mental health disparities that exist between Latino and Caucasian families in our country. The researchers developed and utilized culturally-modified research strategies to maximize recruitment, retention, and satisfaction of Latino families by targeting family systems, community, and cultural levels. Subsequently, the relationship between individual/family and cultural characteristics with participants’ motivation to participate and overall satisfaction with the research project was examined. As part of a larger research study, 70 Latino parents of children aged 5–12 years completed a measure designed to assess an individual’s motivation for participation, as well as his/her satisfaction with participating in psychological research (i.e., the Exit Survey). Parents also completed demographic questionnaire and two measures of acculturation (i.e., the Acculturation Rating Scale of Mexican–Americans-II and the Mexican–American Cultural Values Scale). Results indicate that families with more socioeconomic hardship and more acculturation to mainstream Anglo cognitions and traditional Latino behaviors were more pleased with the overall research project employing culturally-modified strategies aimed at individual/family, community, and cultural levels. Thus, researchers should strive to incorporate appropriate research strategies to recruit and retain “harder to reach” populations in clinical research studies. Better inclusion of Latinos in psychological research ultimately may lead to more culturally-appropriate mental health services and better service utilization for Latino families.     

Book Reviews

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Parental Cognitive Errors Mediate Parental Psychopathology and Ratings of Child Inattention

We investigate the Depression‐Distortion Hypothesis in a sample of 199 school‐aged children with ADHD‐Predominantly Inattentive presentation (ADHD‐I) by examining relations and cross‐sectional mediational pathways between parental characteristics (i.e., levels of parental depressive and ADHD symptoms) and parental ratings of child problem behavior (inattention, sluggish cognitive tempo, and functional impairment) via parental cognitive errors. Results demonstrated a positive association between parental factors and parental ratings of inattention, as well as a mediational pathway between parental depressive and ADHD symptoms and parental ratings of inattention via parental cognitive errors. Specifically, higher levels of parental depressive and ADHD symptoms predicted higher levels of cognitive errors, which in turn predicted higher parental ratings of inattention. Findings provide evidence for core tenets of the Depression‐Distortion Hypothesis, which state that parents with high rates of psychopathology hold negative schemas for their child's behavior and subsequently, report their child's behavior as more severe.     

Realism

Realism is multiply ambiguous. The central concern of Part 1 of this paper is to distinguish several of its many senses — four (Theoretical Realism, Cumulative Realism, Progressive Realism and Optimistic Realism) in which it refers to theses about the status of scientific theories, and five (Minimal Realism, Ambitious Absolutism, Transcendentalism, Nidealism, Scholastic Realism) in which it refers to theses about the nature of truth or truth-bearers. Because Realism has these several, largely independent, senses, the conventional wisdom that Tarski's theory of truth supports realism, and that the Meaning-Variance thesis undermines it, needs re-evaluation. The concern of the rest of the paper is to sort out in which senses the conventional wisdom, with respect to Tarski's theory (Part 2) and the Meaning-Variance thesis (Part 3), is correct.     

Parenting as a Mechanism of Change in Psychosocial Treatment for Youth with ADHD,Predominantly Inattentive Presentation

We investigated whether parenting and child behavior improve following psychosocial treatment for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Predominantly Inattentive Presentation (ADHD-I) and whether parenting improvements mediate child outcomes. We analyzed data from a randomized clinical trial investigating the efficacy of a multicomponent psychosocial intervention (Child Life and Attention Skills, CLAS, n = 74) in comparison to Parent-Focused Treatment (PFT, n = 74) and treatment as usual (TAU, n = 51) for youth with ADHD-I (average child age = 8.6 years, range 7–11 years, 58 % boys). Child and parent/family functioning were assessed prior to treatment, immediately following treatment, and at follow-up into the subsequent school year using parent and teacher reports of inattention, organization, social skills, academic competency (teachers only), parenting daily hassles, and positive and negative parenting behaviors (parents only). Both treatment groups improved on negative parenting and home impairment, but only CLAS families also improved on positive parenting as well as academic impairment. Improvements in positive and negative parenting mediated treatment effects on child impairment independent of improvements in child inattention, implicating parenting as an important mechanism of change in psychosocial treatment for ADHD-I. Further, whereas parent-focused training produces improvements in negative parenting and impairment at home for children with ADHD-I, a multicomponent approach (incorporating child skills training and teacher consultation) more consistently produces improvements at school and in positive parenting, which may contribute to improvements in social skills into the next school year.