title: The strong African American families-teen trial: rationale, design, engagement processes, and family-specific effects.
abstract: This study addresses two limitations in the literature on family-centered intervention programs for adolescents: ruling out nonspecific factors that may explain program effects and engaging parents into prevention programs. The Rural African American Families Health project is a randomized, attention-controlled trial evaluating the efficacy of the Strong African American Families-Teen (SAAF-T) program, a family-centered risk-reduction intervention for rural African American adolescents. Rural African American families (n = 502) with a 10th-grade student were assigned randomly to receive SAAF-T or a similarly structured, family-centered program that focused on health and nutrition. Families participated in audio computer-assisted self-interviews at baseline and 6-month follow-up. Program implementation procedures yielded a design with equivalent doses, five sessions of family-centered intervention programming for families in each condition. Of eligible families screened for participation, 76% attended four or five sessions of the program. Consistent with our primary hypotheses, SAAF-T youth, compared to attention-control youth, demonstrated higher levels of protective family management skills, a finding that cannot be attributed to nonspecific factors such as aggregating families in a structured, interactive setting.
authors: University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA. smkogan@uga.edu
authors: Steven M
authors: SM
authors: Kogan
authors: Gene H
authors: GH
authors: Brody
authors: Virginia K
authors: VK
authors: Molgaard
authors: Christina M
authors: CM
authors: Grange
authors: Desirée A H
authors: DA
authors: Oliver
authors: Tracy N
authors: TN
authors: Anderson
authors: Ralph J
authors: RJ
authors: DiClemente
authors: Gina M
authors: GM
authors: Wingood
authors: Yi-fu
authors: YF
authors: Chen
authors: Megan C
authors: MC
authors: Sperr
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016901:Intergenerational Relations; D008297:Male; D040242:Risk Reduction Behavior