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Patterns of Retention in a Preventive Intervention with Ethnic Minority Families

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This study examined socio-demographic, child, and family-level correlates of retention patterns among parent participants of Familias Unidas/SEPI (Coatsworth, Pantin, & Szapocznik, 2002), a randomized, controlled trial of a family-focused preventive intervention. The current study's aim was to identify variables that could be used to classify ethnic minority (African American and Hispanic) caregivers (N = 143) into their known patterns of retention across 30 sessions of the intervention. Person-centered analyses identified three broad attendance pattern groups: (a) non-attenders; (b) variable-attenders; (c) consistent-high-attenders. Subgroups of the variable-attender group included: (a) dropouts; (b) variable-low-attenders; (c) variable-high-attenders. Four socio-demographic indicators were significant discriminators of the broad retention patterns. Three family-level factors were significant discriminators of the variable-attender subgroups. Additional significant mean/rate differences among retention pattern groups on correlates are reported. Implications for how retention is examined in preventive interventions and for developing intervention strategies for improving retention rates are discussed.

Editors Strategic Implications: The authors address factors related to clients’ engagement and retention from multiple ecological levels. Lessons from this low income, low education, minority sample may prove useful to program developers who want to build in supports and incentives prior to program implementation.

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Notes

  1. Five of the variable-attenders did not have intervention attendance patterns that placed them in any of the subgroups (e.g., some had low attendance in the first half and higher attendance in the second half than in the first) and were therefore excluded from the subgroup analyses because they did not constitute a sufficient number to form an additional subgroup.

  2. A table of correlations is available from the first author.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study was funded by Center for Substance Abuse Prevention Grant 1 UR6 SPO7961 to José Szapocznik, Principal Investigator. We thank the families who participated and the three facilitators who led the intervention groups: Cecilia Ferro, Dolores Perdomo, and Monica Zarate. We also thank Shenandoah, South Miami, and Ponce de Leon Middle Schools, from which participant families were recruited.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania, USA

    J. Douglas Coatsworth & Larissa G. Duncan

  2. Center for Family Studies, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, USA

    Hilda Pantin & José Szapocznik

  3. Human Development and Family Studies, 110 South Henderson Building, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    J. Douglas Coatsworth

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  1. J. Douglas Coatsworth
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  2. Larissa G. Duncan
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  3. Hilda Pantin
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  4. José Szapocznik
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Correspondence to J. Douglas Coatsworth.

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Coatsworth, J.D., Duncan, L.G., Pantin, H. et al. Patterns of Retention in a Preventive Intervention with Ethnic Minority Families. J Primary Prevent 27, 171–193 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10935-005-0028-2

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