Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-m9kch Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-01T00:51:45.730Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Confía en mí, Confío en ti: Applying developmental theory to mitigate sociocultural risk in Latinx families

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 December 2020

Jessica L. Borelli*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Science, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
Tuppett M. Yates
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA
Hannah K. Hecht
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Science, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
Breana R. Cervantes
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Science, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
Lyric N. Russo
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Science, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
Jose Arreola
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Science, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
Francisca Leal
Affiliation:
Latino Health Access, Santa Ana, CA, USA
Gina Torres
Affiliation:
Latino Health Access, Santa Ana, CA, USA
Nancy Guerra
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Science, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
*
Author for Correspondence: Jessica L. Borelli, University of California, Irvine, Social and Behavioral Sciences Gateway, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA; E-mail: jessica.borelli@uci.edu.

Abstract

Ed Zigler was a champion for underprivileged youth, one who worked alongside communities to fight for long-lasting systemic changes that were informed by his lifespan and ecological perspective on the development of the whole child. This paper reports on the development, implementation, and preliminary outcomes of an intervention that embodied the Zigler approach by adopting a community participatory research lens to integrate complementary insights across community-based providers (promotoras), Latinx immigrant families, and developmental psychologists in the service of promoting parent–child relationship quality and preventing youth aggression and violence. Analyses from the first 112 Latinx mother–youth dyad participants (46% female children, ages 8–17) in the resultant, Confía en mí, Confío en ti, eight-week intervention revealed significant pre–post increases in purported mechanisms of change (i.e., attachment security, reflective functioning) and early intervention outcomes (i.e., depressive, anxiety, and externalizing problems). Treatment responses varied by youth age. A case analysis illustrated the lived experiences of the women and children served by this intervention. We discuss future directions for the program, as well as challenges to its sustainability. Finally, we consider Ed's legacy as we discuss the contributions of this work to developmental science and our understanding of attachment relationships among low-income immigrant Latinx families.

Type
Special Issue Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achenbach, T. M. (1991). Manual for the child behavior Checklist/4–18 and 1991 profile. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.Google Scholar
Achenbach, T. M., & Rescorla, L. A. (2001). Manual for the ASEBA school-age forms & profiles. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth, & Families.Google Scholar
Afifi, A. A., Kotlerman, J. B., Ettner, S. L., & Cowan, M. (2007). Methods for improving regression analysis for skewed continuous or counted responses. Annual Review of Public Health, 28, 95111. doi:10.1146/annurev.publhealth.28.082206.094100CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ainsworth, M. S. (1989). Attachment beyond infancy. American Psychologist, 44, 709716. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.44.4.709CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Albores-Gallo, L., Lara-Muñoz, C., Esperón-Vargas, C., Zetina, J. A. C., Soriano, A. M. P., & Colin, G. V. (2007). Validity and reliability of the CBCL/6-18. Includes DSM scales. Actas Españolas de Psiquiatría, 35, 393399.Google ScholarPubMed
Allem, J. P., Soto, D. W., Baezconde-Garbanati, L., & Unger, J. B. (2015). Adverse childhood experiences and substance use among Hispanic emerging adults in Southern California. Addictive Behaviors, 50, 199204. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2015.06.03CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alonso-Arbiol, I., Balluerka, N., & Shaver, P. R. (2007). A Spanish version of the Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR) adult attachment questionnaire. Journal of Personal Relationships, 14, 4563. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6811.2006.00141.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ammaniti, M., Van IJzendoorn, M. H., Speranza, A. M., & Tambelli, R. (2000). Internal working models of attachment during late childhood and early adolescence: An exploration of stability and change. Attachment and Human Development, 2, 328346. doi:10.1080/14616730010001587CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Anderson, R. E., Hussain, S. B., Wilson, M. N., Shaw, D. S., Dishion, T. J., & Williams, J. L. (2015). Pathways to pain: Racial discrimination and relations between parental functioning and child psychosocial well-being. Journal of Black Psychology, 41, 491512. doi:10.1177/0095798414548511CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Atkinson, L. R., Paglia, A., Coolbear, J., Niccols, A., Parker, K. C., & Guger, S. (2000). Attachment security: A meta-analysis of maternal mental health correlates. Clinical Psychology Review, 20, 10191040. doi:10.1016/s0272-7358(99)00023-9CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ayon, C., Marsiglia, F. F., & Bermudez-Parsai, M. (2010). Latino family mental health: Exploring the role of discrimination and familismo. Journal of Community Psychology, 38, 742756. doi:10.1002/jcop.20392CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Backer, T. E., & Guerra, N. G. (2011). Mobilizing communities to implement evidence-based practices in youth violence prevention: The state of the art. American Journal of Community Psychology, 48, 3142. doi:10.1007/s10464-010-9409-7CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bernat, D. H., Oakes, M., Pettingell, S. L., & Resnick, M. (2012). Risk and direct protective factors for youth violence: Results from the National Longitudinal Study of adolescent health. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 43, 557566. doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2012.04.023CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bogart, L. M., & Uyeda, K. (2009). Community-based participatory research: Partnering with communities for effective and sustainable behavioral health interventions. Health Psychology, 28, 391393. doi:10.1037/a0016387CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Borelli, J. L., Smiley, P. A., Kerr, M. L., Hong, K., Hecht, H. K., Blackard, M. B., … Bond, D. K. (2020). Relational Savoring: An attachment-based approach to promoting interpersonal flourishing. Psychotherapy. doi:10.1037/pst0000284CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Borelli, J. L., St. John, H. K., Cho, E., & Suchman, N. E. (2016). Reflective functioning in parents of school-aged children. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 86, 2436. doi:10.1037/ort0000141CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brumariu, L. E., Madigan, S., Giuseppone, K. R., Abtahi, M. M., & Kerns, K. A. (2018). The Security Scale as a measure of attachment: Meta-analytic evidence of validity. Attachment & Human Development, 20, 600625. doi:10.1080/14616734.2018.1433217CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Case, M. H., & Robinson, W. L. (2003). Interventions with ethnic minority populations: The legacy and promise of community psychology. In Bernal, G., Trimble, J. E., Burlew, A. K. & Leong, F. T. L. (Eds.), Handbook of racial and ethnic minority psychology (pp. 573590). Thousand Oaks: SAGE.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2014). Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS). Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D., & Hinshaw, S. P. (Eds.). (2002). Development and Psychopathology, special issue: Prevention and intervention science: Contributions to developmental theory(Vol. 14). New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D., Rappaport, J., Sandler, I., & Weissberg, R. P. (Eds.). (2000). The promotion of wellness in children and adolescents. Washington, DC: CWLA Press.Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D., & Rogosch, F. A. (1996). Equifinality and multifinality in developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 8, 597600. doi:10.1017/S0954579400007318CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cicchetti, D., & Toth, S. L. (2006). Building bridges and crossing them: Translational research in developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 18, 619622. doi:10.1017/S0954579406060317CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group. (2002). The implementation of the Fast Track program: An example of a large-scale prevention science efficacy trial. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 30, 117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, G., Hoffman, K., Powell, B., & Marvin, R. (2005). The circle of security intervention: differential diagnosis and differential treatment. In Berlin, L. J., Ziv, Y., Amaya-Jackson, L., & Greenberg, M. T. (Eds.), Enhancing early attachments: Theory, research, intervention, and policy (pp. 127151). New York, NY: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Cuevas, C. A., Bell, K. A., & Sabina, C. (2014). Victimization, psychological distress, and help-seeking: Disentangling the relationship for Latina victims. Psychology of Violence, 4, 196209. doi:10.1037/a0035819CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Derogatis, L. R. (2001). Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI)-18: Administration, scoring and procedures manual. Minneapolis, MN: NCS Pearson.Google Scholar
Donbaek, D. F., & Elklit, A. (2014). A validation of the Experiences in Close Relationships–Relationship Structures scale (ECR–RS) in adolescents. Attachment & Human Development, 16, 5876. doi:10.1080/14616734.2013.850103CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ducharme, J., Doyle, A. B., & Markiewicz, D. (2002). Attachment security with mother and father: Associations with adolescents’ reports of interpersonal behavior with parents and peers. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 19, 203231. doi:10.1177/0265407502192003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duval, J., Ensink, K., Normandin, L., Sharp, C., & Fonagy, P. (2018). Measuring reflective functioning in adolescents: Relations to personality disorders and psychological difficulties. Adolescent Psychiatry, 8, 520. doi:10.2174/221067660866618020816161CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farrington, D. P., Gaffney, H., & Ttofi, M. M. (2017). Systematic reviews of explanatory risk factors for violence, offending, and delinquency. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 33, 2436. doi:10.1016/j.avb.2016.11.004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finholm, V. (1992). Call of children is his call to arms. The Hartford Courant.Google Scholar
Fonagy, P., Gergely, G., Jurist, E., & Target, M. (2002). Affect regulation, mentalization and the development of the self. New York, NY: Other Press.Google Scholar
Fraley, R. C., Heffernan, M. E., Vicary, A. M., & Brumbaugh, C. C. (2011). The Experiences in Close Relationships-Relationship Structures questionnaire: A method for assessing attachment orientations across relationships. Psychological Assessment, 23, 615625. doi:10.1037/a0022898CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Geibel, S., Habtamu, K., Mekonnen, G., Jani, N., Kay, L., Shibru, J., … Kalibala, S. (2016). Reliability and validity of an interviewer-administered adaptation of the Youth Self- Report for mental health screening of vulnerable young people in Ethiopia. PLoS ONE, 11), doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0147267CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldstein, A., Kerr, M. L., Li, F., Campos, B., Sbarra, D., Smiley, P., … Borelli, J. L. (2019). Intervening to improve reflective functioning and emotional experience among Latino/a parents. In Goldstein, A. G. (Chair) (Ed.), A basic and applied understanding of the bidirectional links between parents’ emotions and child well-being. Symposium conducted at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development. Baltimore, MD.Google Scholar
Gottlieb, G., & Halpern, C. T. (2002). A relational view of causality in normal and abnormal development. Development and Psychopathology, 14, 421435. doi:10.1017/S0954579402003024CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ha, C., Sharp, C., Ensink, K., Fonagy, P., & Cirino, P. (2013). The measurement of reflective function in adolescents with and without borderline traits. Journal of Adolescence, 36, 12151223. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2013.09.008CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harter, S. (1982). The perceived competence scale for children. Child Development, 53(1), 8797CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, N. E., & Torres, K. (2010). Negotiating the American dream: The paradox of aspirations and achievement among Latino students and engagement between their families and schools. Journal of Social Issues, 66, 95112. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.2009.01635.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, D. E., Schumm, W. R., Kennedy, C. E., Grigsby, C. C., Shectman, K. L., & Nichols, C. W. (1985). Characteristics of the Kansas Parental Satisfaction Scale among two samples of married parents. Psychological Reports, 57, 163169. doi:10.2466/pr0.1985.57.1.163CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, A. B., Mliner, S. B., Depasquale, C. E., Troy, M., & Gunnar, M. G. (2018). Attachment security buffers the HPS axis of toddlers growing up in poverty or near poverty: Attachment during pediatric well-child exams with inoculations. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 95, 120127. doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.05.030CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jolliffe, D., & Farrington, D. P. (2006). Examining the relationship between low empathy and bullying. Aggressive Behavior, 32, 540550. doi:10.1002/ab.20154CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalke, T., Glanton, A., & Cristalli, M. (2007). Positive behavioral interventions and supports: Using Strength-Based approaches to enhance the culture of care in residential and day treatment education environments. Child Welfare, 86, 151174.Google ScholarPubMed
Kerns, K. A., Klepac, L., & Cole, A. (1996). A peer relationship and preadolescents’ perceptions of security in the child-mother relationship. Development Psychology, 32, 457466. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.32.3.457CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kliewer, B. W., & Priest, K. L. (2019). Building collective leadership capacity: Lessons learned from a university-community partnership. Collaborations: A Journal of Community-Based Research and Practice, 2, 16. doi:10.33596/coll.42Google Scholar
Kovacs, M. (1992). Children's Depression Inventory, manual. New York/Toronto: MultiHealth Systems.Google Scholar
Latino Health Access. (2018). Latino Health Access partners with communities to bring health, equity and sustainable change through education, services, consciousness-raising and civic participation. https://www.latinohealthaccess.org/.Google Scholar
Luyten, P., Mayes, L. C., Nijssens, L., & Fonagy, P. (2017). The Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire – Adolescent version. Leuven, Belgium: University of Leuven. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0176218.Google Scholar
Lynch, M., & Cicchetti, D. (2004). Links between community violence and the family system: Evidence from children's feelings of relatedness and perceptions of parent behavior. Family Process, 41, 519532. doi:10.1111/j.1545-5300.2002.41314.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malakoff, M. E., Underhill, J. M., & Zigler, E. (1998). Influence of inner-city environment and Head Start experience on effectance motivation. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 68, 630638. doi:10.1037/h0080371CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Manzano-Sanchez, H., Outley, C. O., Gonzalez, J. E., & Matarrita-Cascante, D. (2018). The influence of self-efficacy beliefs in the academic performance of Latina/o students in the United States: A systematic literature review. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 40, 176209. doi:10.1177/0739986318761323CrossRefGoogle Scholar
March, J. S., Parker, J. D. A., Sullivan, K., Stallings, P., & Conners, C. (1997). The Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC): Factor structure, reliability, and validity. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 36, 554565. doi:10.1097/00004583-199704000-00019CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McMillan, D. W., & Chavis, D. M. (1986). Sense of community: A definition and theory. Journal of Community Psychology, 14, 623. doi:10.1002/1520-6629(198601)143.0.CO;2-I>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McPhedran, S. (2009). A review of the evidence for associations between empathy, violence, and animal cruelty. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 14, 14. doi:10.1016/j.avb.2008.07.005CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neblett, E. W., Rivas-Drake, D., & Umana-Taylor, A. J. (2012). The promise of racial and ethnic protective factors in promoting ethnic minority youth development. Child Development Perspectives, 6, 295303. doi:10.1111/j.1750-8606.2012.00239.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Brien, K., Daffern, M., Chu, C. M., & Thomas, S. D. M. (2013). Youth gang affiliation, violence, and criminal activities: A review of motivational, risk, and protective factors. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 18, 417425. doi:10.1016/j.avb.2013.05.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oronoz, B., Alonso-Arbiol, I., & Balluerka, N. (2007). A Spanish adaptation of the parental stress scale. Psicothema, 19, 687692.Google ScholarPubMed
Perkins-Gough, D. (2007). Giving intervention a head start: A conversation with Edward Zigler. Educational Leadership, 65, 814.Google Scholar
Prelow, H. M., Weaver, S. R., Swenson, R. R., & Bowman, M. A. (2005). A preliminary investigation of the validity and reliability of the Brief-Symptom Inventory-18 in economically disadvantaged Latina American mothers. Journal of Community Psychology, 33, 139155. doi:10.1002/jcop.20041CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ranson, K., & Urichuk, L. (2008). The effect of parent-child attachment relationships on child biopsychosocial outcomes: A review. Early Child Development and Care, 178, 129152. doi:10.1080/03004430600685282CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rappaport, J., & Seidman, E. (Eds.). (2000). Handbook of community psychology. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. doi:10.1007/978-1-4615-4193-6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riconscente, M. M. (2013). Effects of perceived teacher practices on Latino high school students’ interest, self-efficacy, and achievement in mathematics. The Journal of Experimental Education, 82, 5173. doi:10.1080/00220973.2013.813358CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruiz, F. J., Langer Herrera, A. I., Luciano, C., Cangas, A. J., & Beltran, I. (2013). Measuring experiential avoidance and psychological inflexibility: The Spanish version of the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire - II. Psicothema, 25, 123129. doi:10.7334/psicothema2011.239.Google ScholarPubMed
Saylor, C. F., Finch, A. J., Spirito, A., & Bennett, B. (1984). The Children's Depression Inventory: A systematic evaluation of psychometric properties. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 52, 955967. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.52.6.955CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shmueli-Goetz, Y., Target, M., Fonagy, P., & Datta, A. (2008). The Child Attachment Interview: A psychometric study of reliability and discriminant validity. Developmental Psychology, 44, 939956. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.44.4.939CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Slade, A., Aber, J. L., Bresgi, I., Berger, B., & Kaplan, M. (2004). The parent development interview – Revised, Unpublished protocol. New York, NY: The City University of New York.Google Scholar
Sroufe, L. A. (1990). An organizational perspective on the self. In Cicchetti, D. & Beeghly, M. (Eds.), The self in transition: Infancy to childhood (pp. 281307). Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Stueber, K. R. (2006). Rediscovering empathy: Agency, folk psychology, and the human sciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taubner, S., & Curth, C. (2013). Mentalization mediates the relation between early traumatic experiences and aggressive behavior in adolescence. Psihologija, 46, 177192. doi:10.2298/PSI1302177TCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taubner, S., White, L. O., Zimmermann, J., Fonagy, P., & Nolte, T. (2013). Attachment-related mentalization moderates the relationship between psychopathic traits and proactive aggression in adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 41, 929938. doi:10.1007/s10802-013-9736-xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Venta, A., Galicia, B., Bailey, C., Abate, A., Marshall, K., & Long, T. (2019). Attachment and loss in the context of US immigration: Caregiver separation and characteristics of internal working models of attachment in high school students. Attachment & Human Development, 22, 474489. doi: 10.1080/14616734.2019.1664604.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vick, R. M., & Packard, B. W. (2008). Academic success strategy use among community-active Hispanic adolescents. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 30, 463480.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, R. (1959). Motivation reconsidered: The concept of competence. Psychological Review, 66, 297–233. doi:10.1037/h0040934CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wiley, A., & Rappaport, J. (2000). Empowerment, wellness, and the politics of development. In Weissberg, R. P. (Ed.), The promotion of wellness in children and adolescents (pp. 5999). Washington, DC: CWLA Press.Google Scholar
Williamson, A. A., Knox, L., Guerra, N. G., & Williams, K. R. (2014). A pilot randomized trial of community-based parent training for immigrant Latina mothers. American Journal of Community Psychology, 53, 4759. doi:10.1007/s10464-013-9612-4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zeman, J., Klimes-Dougan, B., Cassano, M., & Adrian, M. (2007). Measurement issues in emotion research with children and adolescents. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 14, 377401. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2850.2007.00098.xGoogle Scholar
Zigler, E. F. (1976). The exploring childhood curriculum. Newton, MA: Education Development Center, Inc.Google Scholar
Zigler, E., & Finn-Stevenson, M. (2007). From research to policy and practice: The School of the 21st Century. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 77, 175181. doi:10.1037/0002-9432.77.2.175CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zigler, E., & Styfco, S. J. (1998). Applying the findings of developmental psychology to improve early childhood intervention. In Paris, S. G., & Wellman, H. M. (Eds.), Global prospects for education: Development, culture, and schooling (pp. 345365). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. doi:10.1037/10294-012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zubeidat, I., Dallasheh, W., Fernandez-Parra, A., Sierra, J. C., & Salinas, J. S. (2018). Youth self-report factor structure: Detecting sex and age differences in emotional and behavioral problems among Spanish school adolescent sample. International Journal of Social Science Studies, 6, 3552. doi:10.11 114/ijsss.v6il0.3649CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Borelli et al. Supplementary Materials

Borelli et al. Supplementary Materials

Download Borelli et al. Supplementary Materials(File)
File 27.8 KB