Introduction
Familias Unidas (FU) is a family-based program in Miami to prevent delinquency in youth. As a twelve-session minority-oriented program, FU pursues the mission of preventing criminogenic behaviors, ranging from substance abuse to behavioral disorders, in Hispanic students aged 12-17 (National Gang Center, 2021; Rojas et al., 2021). The implementation path incorporates parental education, community integration, and practices for family cohesion (Rojas et al., 2021). No cost or funding source information is available for the program. As an intervention discussed in scholarly literature, FU represents a suitable topic for Module 3 assignments.
Outcomes/Effectiveness and Searching for Information
The program reaches its goals rather effectively, but the extent of positive outcomes might depend on students’ baseline characteristics. Regarding post-program changes, based on previous research conducted between 2009 and 2017, FA participation improves participant-perceived family functioning (Rojas et al., 2021). Additionally, in four efficacy/effectiveness trials completed in the specified period, FA participants reported fewer cases of drug abuse and high-risk sexual encounters compared to their peers receiving no assistance (Rojas et al., 2021). Moreover, FA is known to cause reductions in internalizing psychological symptoms in teenagers, but the positive effects for participants with high levels of such symptoms are minimal (Brincks et al., 2018). Therefore, not all FA participants respond to the program in the same way, which does not undermine its overall effectiveness. The information on FA was found by consulting the Crime Solutions tool to confirm the topic’s relevance and using the National Gang Center to locate a non-outdated summary of FA. Finally, the most recent research mentioning FA was found using Google Scholar.
Conclusions and Reform Recommendations
In conclusion, FA can be described as a promising delinquency prevention intervention, which stems from the presence of positive effects reported by participants in a consistent manner. Also, it is clear from family functioning outcomes that FA supports the Hispanic community’s overall health. The only reform recommendation that can be proposed so far is to consider students’ internalization symptoms in service provision. It can be achieved by pre-intervention testing and dividing families into groups based on children’s psychological states.
References
Brincks, A., Perrino, T., Howe, G., Pantin, H., Prado, G., Huang, S., Cruden, C., & Brown, C. H. (2018). Preventing youth internalizing symptoms through the Familias Unidas intervention: Examining variation in response. Prevention Science, 19(1), 49-59.
National Gang Center. (2021). Familias Unidas. Web.
Rojas, L. M., Bahamon, M., Lebron, C., Montero-Zamora, P., Pardo, M., Wakefield, M., Tapia, M., Estrada, Y., Schwartz, S. J., & Pantin, H. (2021). A feasibility trial of an online-only, family-centered preventive intervention for Hispanics: E-Familias Unidas. The Journal of Primary Prevention, 42(2), 97-124.