Cultural Adaptation of a U.S. Evidence-Based Parenting Intervention for Rural Western Kenya: From Parents Matter! to Families Matter!

Abstract

Evidence-based interventions (EBIs) are critical for effective HIV prevention, but time and resources required to develop and evaluate new interventions are limited. Alternatively, existing EBIs can be adapted for new settings if core elements remain intact. We describe the process of adapting the Parents Matter! Program, an EBI originally developed for African American parents to promote effective parent-child communication about sexual risk reduction and parenting skills, for use in rural Kenya. A systematic process was used to assess the community's needs, identify potential EBIs, identify and make adaptations, pilot-test the adapted intervention, and implement and monitor the adapted EBI. Evaluation results showed the adapted EBI retained its effectiveness, successfully increasing parent-child sexual communication and parenting skills. Our experience suggests an EBI can be successfully adapted for a new context if it is relevant to local needs, the process is led by a multidisciplinary team with community representation, and pilot-testing and early implementation are well monitored.

Factors Associated with Parent–Child Communication About HIV/AIDS in the United States and Kenya: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

“…Measures for the Kenya evaluation were chosen from the US evaluation. Previous formative work with the Asembo community around the context of sexuality education demonstrated that parents in Kenya and the US face similar barriers in communicating with their children about sexuality issues [35], providing support for the cultural relevancy of drawing from parenting constructs used in the US study for the Kenya evaluation. The measures were extensively pretested in Asembo; questions eliciting inconsistent responses were reviewed and revised by focus groups, program staff, and other community members for comprehension.…”

Risk for Coerced Sex Among Female Youth in Ghana: Roles of Family Context, School Enrollment and Relationship Experience

“…85–87 Similar strategies are now being adapted for and evaluated in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. 88,89 Our findings, however, suggest that while interventions designed to increase parental behavioral control of youth, or to improve skills for managing conflict in youth-parent relationships, may have some effects on sexual behaviors, they may do little to protect adolescent females in Ghana from coerced sex.…”

Cultural and Contextual Adaptation of an eHealth Intervention for Youth Receiving Services for First-Episode Psychosis: Adaptation Framework and Protocol for Horyzons-Canada Phase 1 (Preprint)

“…We identified several models on the adaptation process developed across a range of different fields (e.g., psychology, education); for example, in relation to psychotherapy and evidencebased health interventions [4,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. We also identified frameworks evaluating online tools [24,25], implementation research models (e.g., Revised Ottawa Model of Research Use) [26], and technology and innovation models (e.g., Technology Acceptance Model) [27].…”