Family-Based Prevention With Black and Latinx Children

This pilot project is novel in that it (a) interweaves positive parenting practices, ethnic-racial socialization, and healthy lifestyle behaviors into a prevention program for Black and Latinx families, and (b) targets preschool-aged children using a brief, universal prevention approach, which increases potential for dissemination and scalability. The guiding hypothesis is that incorporating these components into a parenting intervention will lead to improvements in children's health as compared to a control condition. A type 1 hybrid effectiveness-implementation design is used to simultaneously test intervention effectiveness while also gathering information on intervention delivery to inform future implementation trials. The specific aims are to: (a) test the preliminary effects of a preventive intervention on the social-emotional functioning and healthy lifestyle behaviors of Black and Latinx children, (b) identify the preliminary effects of the intervention on parenting outcomes, and (c) examine potential barriers and facilitators to intervention delivery.

Inclusion criteria

Eligible children will:

• be between the ages of 3-6 years
• identify as Black/African American or Latinx/Hispanic
• have a parent or caregiver willing to participate in the intervention that: (a) lives in the same household as the child ≥50% of the time, (b) has primary responsibility for the child, and (c) speaks English or Spanish.

Exclusion criteria

Consistent with typical methods associated with a universal prevention approach, there are minimal exclusion criteria. Children will be excluded who:

• have a cognitive/psychological condition that limits the child's ability to communicate
• have a physical health condition that limits the child's ability to be physically active