Testing the Efficacy of a Brief Intervention to Reduce HIV and Substance Use Risk among Hispanic/Latino Adolescents

Background: Familias Unidas is an efficacious and effective family-based intervention for preventing and reducing substance use and risky sexual behaviors among Hispanic/Latino youth. To facilitate its dissemination, Familias Unidas was shortened from a 12-week intervention to a six-week intervention and evaluated. It was hypothesized that brief Familias Unidas would be efficacious in reducing substance use and risky sexual behaviors relative to a control condition.

Methods: 160 9^th grade Hispanic/Latino adolescents and their families were randomized to brief Familias Unidas or a community practice control (CPC) condition. Adolescents were assessed at baseline and 6, 12, and 24 months post-baseline.

Results: Youth randomized to brief Familias Unidas had a significantly lower sexual initiation rate (34.0%) relative to control (55.0%), p = 0.02. Additionally, moderation analyses revealed brief Familias Unidas was significantly associated with decreased alcohol use initiation among girls (30.4% vs. 64.0%, respectively; p = 0.02), but not boys (28.0% vs. 26.7%, respectively; p = 0.912). Brief Familias Unidas was also significantly associated with reduced risky sex among adolescents 15 years old or less (b = 0.85, p < 0.001), but not among older adolescents (b = 0.24, p = 0.37). Moderating effects were also found for family level variables.

Conclusion: Brief Familias Unidas was efficacious in improving sexual risk outcomes, but not substance use outcomes. However, moderation analyses suggest that brief Familias Unidas was efficacious in reducing substance use and sex initiation for certain Hispanic adolescent subgroups, highlighting the importance of conducting moderation analyses and of targeting interventions for specific subgroups.