Study Details

Citation

Estrada, Y., Rosen, A., Huang, S., Tapia, M., Sutton, M., Willis, L., Quevedo, A., Condo, C., Vidot, D. C., Pantin, H., Prado, G. (2015). Efficacy of a brief intervention to reduce substance use and human immunodeficiency virus infection risk among latino youth. Journal of Adolescent Health, 57(6), 651-657.

Program or Component Study?
Program
Program or Component Name

Familias Unidas

Show Evidence of Effectiveness
Yes
Study Rating and Explanation
High

Random assignment study that met all criteria for a high rating; findings show a positive, statistically significant impact for at least one behavioral outcome

Program Information

Program Type
Sexual health education
Program Length
Fewer than 10 sessions

Evaluation Setting

Evaluation Setting
Multiple settings

Study Sample

Average Age Group
14 to 17
Majority Racial/Ethnic Group
Hispanic or Latinx of any race
Gender
Youth of any gender

Research Design

Assignment Method
Randomized controlled trial
Sample Size

160

Number of Follow-Ups

3

Length of Last Follow-Up

24 after BL

Year of Last Data Collection
2013

Study Findings

Result Sexual Activity
Potentially favorable evidence
Result Contraceptive
Indeterminate evidence
Reviewed Studies
High-Quality Randomized Trial
Protocol Version
Version 5.0
Details

A more recent study involving 160 students in Miami-Dade County high schools and their families examined the effectiveness of Brief Familias Unidas using a randomized controlled trial. Brief Familias Unidas is an adapted version of the Familias Unidas program that reduces the duration of the intervention to include five parent sessions (compared to eight in the full length program) and one family visit (compared to four in the full length program). The study collected data before random assignment (baseline) and again 6, 12, and 24 months after baseline.

The study found that, 24 months after the baseline survey, the adolescents in the group that received Brief Familias Unidas and who were not sexually experienced at baseline were less likely to have had initiated sex than their counterparts in the group that did not receive the program (odds ratio = 0.42, confidence interval = 0.27 to 0.65). At the 24-month follow-up, the study found no evidence of statistically significant impacts on having vaginal or anal sex without a condom in the past 90 days.

The study also examined program impacts on measures of use of cigarettes, alcohol, illicit substances, overall substance use, parental involvement, positive parenting, and parent-adolescent communication. Findings for these outcomes were not considered for the review because they fell outside the scope of the review.

Effect Sizes
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NA = Not available. This means the authors did not report the information in the manuscripts associated with the studies we reviewed.

a This information was not available whenever authors did not report information for the treatment and comparison groups separately on outcome means, standard deviations, and/or sample sizes.

b Authors reported that the program effect (impact) estimate is statistically significant with a p-value of less than 0.05 based on a two-tailed test.

c For some outcomes, having less of that outcome is favorable. In those cases, an effect with a negative sign is favorable to the treatment group (that is, the treatment group had a more favorable outcome than the comparison group, on average).

d An effect shows credibly estimated, statistically significant evidence whenever it has a p-value of less than 0.05 based on a two-tailed test, includes the appropriate adjustment for clustering (if applicable), and it is not based on an endogenous subgroup.