Anilena Mejia

Family skills training programs (FSTPs) are the interventions of choice for the prevention of alcohol and drug use worldwide. However, the majority of evidence about their effectiveness comes from high-income countries, such as the United States and European countries. Several systematic reviews point to the lack of research on the effectiveness of...

Research suggests that parenting programs are effective for preventing behavioral and emotional difficulties in children, but a lot more attention needs to be paid to issues of context and culture during the development, testing, and implementation of these interventions. The views and needs of underserved and disenfranchised communities in the USA...

An increasing number of culturally adapted family‐level interventions address mental health disparities with marginalized populations in the United States. However, with these developments many barriers have arisen, such as challenges with degree of cultural fit, engagement, and sustainability. We conducted 12 elite phenomenological interviews with...

Self-regulation is developed early in life through family and parenting interactions. There has been considerable debate on how to best conceptualize and enhance self-regulation. Many consider self-regulation as the socio-emotional competencies required for healthy and productive living, including the flexibility to regulate emotions, control anger...

Background We sought to identify if socioeconomic and demographic factors play a role in resident knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding Dengue, Chikungunya, and Zika in order to inform effective management procedures for disease prevention in Panama, a middle-income tropical country in Central America. All three are arthropod-borne viruses tr...

Relevant initiatives are being implemented in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) aimed at strengthening a culture of prevention. However, cumulative contextual factors constitute significant barriers for implementing rigorous prevention science in these contexts, as defined by guidelines from high-income countries (HICs). Specifically, dissem...

Background Interpersonal violence can significantly reduce adolescents’ opportunities for becoming happy and healthy adults. Central America is the most violent region in the world and it is estimated that adolescents are involved in 82% of all homicides in this region. Family skills training programmes have been designed to prevent interpersonal v...

School-based management (SBM) programs are effective for improving academic performance. However, few studies have examined factors predicting their effectiveness. We analyzed data from a randomized experiment conducted in Mexico designed to test effects of SBM with double resources as compared to standard resources. Results indicated that regardle...

The parenting experience can be both similar and vastly different across different cultural contexts. This chapter outlines what culture is and the impact it has on family structure and functioning and beliefs about parenting. Discussed are the similarities and differences across common cultural dimensions and how knowledge of local cultural belief...

Child maltreatment in low- and middle-income countries overburdens health systems, compromises education, perpetuates gender inequalities and slows down development. Research suggests that parenting programmes are effective for the early prevention of child maltreatment. However, wide deployment in LMICs where violence towards children is high is y...

Objectives To explore cultural appropriateness of a transported parenting intervention in Panama. Methods Panamanian parents (n = 25) were interviewed after participation in an Australian parenting intervention. A thematic analysis was conducted to interpret qualitative data. ResultsThree themes emerged; cultural context, appropriateness of the int...

Relevant achievements have been accomplished in prevention science with regard to disseminating efficacious parenting interventions among underserved populations. However, widespread disparities in availability of parenting services continue to negatively impact diverse populations in high-income countries (e.g., the USA) and low- and middle-income...

Purpose: To systematically review existing empirical research assessing levels and correlates of distress in significant others of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME). Methods: Systematic searches in CINAHL, Web of Science and PsycINFO were conducted in August 2014. The search was repeated in January 2015 to c...

How useful are randomized controlled trials in a rapidly changing world? - Volume 3 - A. Perez-Gomez, J. Mejia-Trujillo, A. Mejia

Parenting interventions are effective for preventing psychological difficulties in children. However, their active ingredients have not been comprehensively explored. How do they work? What are the mechanisms operating behind changes? In 2012, a randomized controlled trial of a parenting intervention was conducted in low-resource communities of Pan...

Parenting interventions are recommended strategies for preventing emotional and behavioral problems in adolescents. Little is known, however, about the cultural fit of these interventions outside high-income English speaking countries. This is one of the first studies to explore parental perceptions of cultural fit of a well-known American parentin...

Introduction: parenting represents challenges. Mothers of overweight (OW) - obesity (OB) children face their children's lifestyle behaviors related to body weight. Objectives: 1) To assess the reliability of The Lifestyle Behaviour Checklist (LBC) in Spanish, 2) To evaluate the children´s lifestyle behaviour that represent for the mother a probl...

The aim of this study was to determine whether an intervention from the Triple P Positive Parenting Program system was effective in reducing parental reports of child behavioral difficulties in urban low-income settings in Panama City. A pilot parallel-group randomized controlled trial was carried out. A total of 108 parents of children 3 to 12 yea...

In the present study, we explored the factor structure as well as validity and reliability of the Spanish version of the Child Adjustment and Parent Efficacy Scale (CAPES) suitable for assessing child behavioural and emotional difficulties (Intensity Scale) and parental self-efficacy (Self-Efficacy Scale) among Spanish-speaking parents from the US,...

Family skill training programs have been recognized as effective strategies for preventing substance use. However, they have been evaluated mainly in high-income countries. Families in developing countries also face difficulties; therefore, it is important to explore the fit of existing programs in this context. The present study explores parents'...

A set of instruments with different response formats is usually used to assess parenting practices in clinical settings and in research studies. These complex protocols can be problematic for parents with low-literacy levels. The Parenting and Family Adjustment Scales (PAFAS) is a brief, easy to read instrument that has been developed to address th...

Several international organizations have suggested the need for disseminating existing evidence-based parenting interventions into low-resource settings of the world in order to prevent societal difficulties such as violence. Before dissemination efforts take place, it is important to examine the fit of existing interventions in these contexts. In...

Los programas de entrenamiento a cuidadores (PECs) surgen en los años ochenta (1980) cimentadosen teorías cognitivas y conductuales, específicamente en teorías de modificación de conducta.Por más de 30 años, la eficacia de estos programas ha sido demostrada en diversos estudiosaleatorios controlados (randomized controlled trials o RCT por sus sigla...

A culturally sensitive approach needs to be adopted in disseminating evidence-based preventive programs internationally, and very little is known about effective dissemination into low-resource settings such as low and middle income countries. Following guidelines on optimizing the fit of evidence-based parenting programs worldwide, a cultural rele...

A culturally sensitive approach needs to be adopted in disseminating evidence-based preventive programs internationally, and very little is known about effective dissemination into low-resource settings such as low and middle income countries. Following guidelines on optimizing the fit of evidence-based parenting programs worldwide, a cultural rele...

PRESENTATION TYPE: NIDA International Poster Session TITLE: A model for the cross-cultural dissemination of a preventive parenting program into a developing country ABSTRACT BODY: Introduction: Studies suggest that parenting programs are effective for preventing drug abuse. Existing interventions developed in high income countries are dissemin...

Many children in developing countries are at risk of emotional and behavioral difficulties, which are likely to be elevated due to the effects of poverty. Parenting programs have shown to be effective preventative strategies in high-income countries, but to date the research on their effectiveness in lower-income countries is limited. International...