Abstract
As the Latino population in the United States experiences rapid growth, the well-being of Latino adolescents is a growing concern because of their high rates of mental health problems. Latino adolescents have higher rates of mental health problems than their peers, including depressive symptoms, suicide attempts, and violence. Sophisticated, realistic health promotion efforts are needed to reduce these risk behaviors and enhance protective factors. Parents and schools can be key protective factors, or assets, in adolescents' lives. This article details the steps undertaken to develop Project Wings Home Visits, a collaborative school-based, community-linked mental health promotion intervention for Latino adolescents and their families. Core to the intervention is the use of a community health worker model to provide home-based outreach and education to parents of Latino adolescents. The intervention was developed using a community-based participatory research approach that involved the cooperation of a community health care system, a public high school, and a university. Our process demonstrates the benefits, strengths, and challenges of using community-based participatory research in creating and implementing health promotion interventions.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 755-762 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Health Promotion Practice |
Volume | 13 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 2012 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Effort on this article was supported by a Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health Grant administered by the Deborah E. Powell Center for Women’s Health at the University of Minnesota, Grant K12HD055887 from the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development, and grant funding from the Medica Foundation and the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota.
Keywords
- Latino
- adolescent
- community-based participatory research
- family-based intervention
- health promotion
- mental health
- participatory action research