Hero/heroine modeling for Puerto Rican adolescents: a preventive mental health intervention.
Culturally sensitive treatments of the special mental health needs of high-risk Puerto Rican adolescents are lacking. The hero/heroine intervention was based on adult Puerto Rican role models to foster ethnic identity, self-concept, and adaptive coping behavior. 90 nonclinical Puerto Rican 8th and 9th graders were screened for presenting behavior problems in school and randomly assigned to an intervention and a control group. After 19 sessions, the intervention significantly increased adolescents' ethnic identity and self-concept and reduced anxiety. Treatment outcomes varied as a function of grade level, sex, and household composition. Self-concept was negatively affected among girls from intact families. The study supports the effectiveness of the culturally sensitive modality as a preventive mental health intervention for high-risk Puerto Rican adolescents, especially from single-parent families.
Malgady
R G
RG
Program of Quantitative Studies, New York University, New York 10003.
Rogler
L H
LH
Costantino
G
G
D000069:Acculturation; D000293:Adolescent; D000850:Anomie; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior; D008297:Male; D009519:New York City; D010553:Personality Development; D011647:Puerto Rico / Q000208:ethnology; D012934:Social Isolation; D012951:Socialization; D014505:Urban Population