Building bridges through cultural adaptation: Examining the initial impact of a culturally adapted parent training intervention for the Chilean context.

Child exposure to maltreatment and neglect constitutes a significant public health problem throughout Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. Although evidence-based parent training (PT) interventions constitute an empirically demonstrated alternative to prevent child maltreatment and neglect, multiple implementation barriers have prevented the large-scale dissemination of evidence-based PT interventions across LAC countries. This selective prevention study consisted of an exploratory quasi-experimental design implemented in Chile, aimed at examining the initial impact of a culturally adapted version of the evidence-based PT intervention known as GenerationPMTO©. The parenting intervention was adapted in a previous pilot study, according to a rigorous model of cultural adaptation. Based on self-reports completed by 281 caregivers, when compared to baseline measurements, significant improvements at intervention completion were observed in the majority of caregivers' parenting practices, as well as child internalizing and externalizing problematic behaviors. This study provides promising initial empirical evidence that efficacious PT interventions developed in the US can be transported to Latin American contexts, as long as they are thoroughly adapted to achieve high contextual and cultural relevance. The rates of child maltreatment across LAC countries constitute an urgent and permanent call for strongly promoting this line of prevention research.

Culturally adapting an evidence-based parenting intervention for the Chilean context: Balancing fidelity, context, and cultural relevance.

The dissemination of evidence-based parent training (PT) interventions remains extremely limited in Latin American countries. This is concerning when considering the high prevalence of child maltreatment associated with punitive parenting practices across countries in the region. Furthermore, efforts to disseminate PT interventions must be conducted by adhering to the core parenting components that have established effectiveness for such interventions, while ensuring contextual and cultural relevance for focus populations. In this manuscript, we describe the cultural adaptation of an evidence-based PT intervention in the context of Chile. This initial phase of adaptation was informed by the theoretical tenets of the Ecological Validity Model of cultural adaptation (Bernal et al., J. Abnorm. Child Psychol., 23, 1995, 67). According to findings from a qualitative thematic analysis conducted with five interventionists in training, therapists perceived that the intervention's core components were relevant to Chilean caregivers who participated in the parenting program. Interventionists also provided specific suggestions to enhance the intervention's contextual and cultural relevance. This investigation illustrates the importance of culturally adapting evidence-based interventions according to comprehensive cultural adaptation frameworks, prior to engaging in large-scale dissemination of adapted interventions in Latin American contexts.