AbstractsPsychology

This study investigated whether self-efficacy and perceived parental support increase in at-risk Latino adolescents due to completion of the VIDA program. These measures were tested because previous research has found them to be contributing factors in deterring poor adolescent behaviors. This study is important because there is little prior research assessing self-efficacy among Latino at-risk youth that does not compare them to the Caucasian population. Subjects were administered the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE) and the Parental Behavior Measure (PBM) scale pre- and post-intervention. The 38 participants who completed both the pre- and posttests were included in the analyses. As expected, self-efficacy scores significantly increased from pretest ( M = 27.68) to posttest (M = 30.18), F(1, 32) = 5.978, p = .020, partial η 2 = 0.157, as did parental support scores from pretest (M = 22.61) to posttest (M = 24.89), F(1, 32) = 11.209, p = .002, partial η 2 = 0.259. As indicated by PBM scores, the oldest group (16 and 17 years old) reported significantly lower levels of parental support ( M = 20.262) than did the middle age group of 14- and 15-year-olds (M = 25.714, p = .037), perhaps because parents of the older group feel that they no longer need as much support. Unexpectedly, sex had no significant impact on pre- and posttest levels of self-efficacy or perceived parental support, perhaps due to the small sample size (M = 22, F = 16) or the slight underrepresentation of females. These results suggest that VIDA helps build self-efficacy and increase perceived parental support in Latino at-risk adolescents.