Culturally Relevant Factors and the Young Parenthood Program

I applaud Florsheim et al.1 for bridging the research to practice gap by developing and implementing the Young Parenthood Program (YPP) for expectant adolescent parents. The influence of intimate relationship factors upon the psychological adjustment and health of parents and children is a critical linkage that warrants more attention in the field of public health. While the aims and outcomes of this study were promising, there appeared to be key issues that were either overlooked in the study or omitted from the article. Mainly, the lack of discussion of cultural factors left me with many unaddressed questions regarding the implementation, results, and implications for the YPP. The authors point out that the study participants were primarily White or Latino. Indeed, the sample descriptive statistics indicate that 65% of the male participants and 50% of the female participants were identified (or self-identified) as Latino or Other. Research literature2 has documented how factors such as historical exclusion, discrimination, and oppression have hindered ethnic minority groups from accessing culturally relevant interventions. It has also been noted that an intervention’s lack of fit with the target cultural population can result in recruitment and retention difficulties,2 and culturally adapted interventions have been linked to participant satisfaction and improved outcomes in parenting interventions for a subgroup of Latinos.3 Thus, I was left wondering how culturally relevant factors were handled in this study. For example, did potential culturally based perceptions of the therapeutic process (e.g., stigma) impact recruitment and retention? How did the match or mismatch of therapist and participant ethnicity impact the intervention outcomes? How much attention was given to cultural factors such as family values, kinship networks, religious and spiritual beliefs, acculturation, and language preferences in the intervention? Finally, it would be valuable to further specify the participants’ ethnic backgrounds given that the Latino population in the United States is very heterogeneous with regard to factors such as country of origin, acculturation, language proficiency, and socioeconomic status.4 Again, the authors’ examination of coparenting factors, and specifically the inclusion of fathers in this research, is refreshing. Nonetheless, attending to culturally relevant factors is critical and could potentially help to move this important intervention from efficacy to effectiveness

Cultural competence · Cultural diversity · Ethnic group · Population · Psychiatry · Psychological intervention · Public health · Sociology · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Clinical Psychology · Early Childhood Education and Development · Medicine · Nursing · Parental Involvement in Education · Psychology · Social Psychology

• Young Parenthood Program

  Paul Florsheim, Jason J Burrow-Sánchez et al.•American Journal of Public Health•2012

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