Promoting Health and Reducing Risk among Hispanic Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Youth and their Families - Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) youth in general, and Hispanic LBG youth in particular (HLGB), report higher levels of drug use and depressive symptoms, compared to their heterosexual peers. Moreover, negative health outcomes (e.g., drug use) are even higher for HLGB youth who disclose to parents who are unaccepting of their youth. In fact, youth disclosure initiates a transition process where parents may struggle to adjust to youth being lesbian, gay, or bisexual, potentially leading to poor family functioning (e.g., poor communication and low family support). Further, some parents may not know how to be supportive of their youth and adolescents may lack the needed skills to manage stress and negative reactions that may have reverberating health effects. Given the impact of these co-occurring factors, it is critical to develop and evaluate family-based preventive interventions to prevent or reduce the adverse health risks that HLGB youth face. Interventions need to account for the unique experiences of HLGB youth and their families, including family support and family functioning. Currently, there are no evidence-based, family-based preventive interventions that target drug use and depressive symptoms among HLGB youth. Our team has begun work to fill this important scientific gap by developing, pilot testing, and publishing on a family-based preventive intervention for HLGB youth, Families with Pride/Familias con Orgullo. Given the promising findings for Families with Pride/Familias con Orgullo on drug use and depressive symptoms, the primary goal of this study is to evaluate, in a randomized controlled trial with 306 HLGB youth and their parents, the efficacy of Families with Pride/Familias con Orgullo on preventing/reducing adolescent drug use (both frequency and quantity) and depressive symptoms. The aims of the study are: AIM 1: Examine the efficacy of Families with Pride/Familias con Orgullo, compared to community practice, in decreasing past 90-day drug use (frequency and quantity) and depressive symptoms among HLGB youth, over 30-months. AIM 2: Examine whether the relationship between intervention condition and the outcomes are partially mediated by parent support for the adolescent, family functioning, and adolescent stress. Exploratory AIM 3: Explore whether sex (defined as either male or female) and baseline levels of parent support for the adolescent, family functioning, and adolescent stress moderate intervention effects on the youth outcomes. This study aligns with current HHS priorities of decreasing mental health among youth exploring non-pharmacological interventions and lifestyle approaches.
