# Project 4: Testing the Efficacy of the Culturally-Adapted Conexiones Program for Hispanic Mothers  Diagnosed with Cancer

> **NIH NIH U54** · NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY LAS CRUCES · 2020 · $169,771

## Abstract

Title: Testing the Efficacy of the Culturally-Adapted Conexiones Program for Hispanic Mothers Diagnosed with
Cancer
 Project Leaders: Rebecca Palacios, NMSU; Fran Lewis, Fred Hutch
[The content of this Full Proposal is identical in the NMSU and Fred Hutch proposals]
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The purpose of the proposed study is to test the short-term efficacy of a cancer parenting education program
for diagnosed child-rearing Hispanic mothers, called Conexiones. This program was culturally adapted from a
parenting program previously tested for efficacy in a Phase III, 6-state randomized clinical trial. However, the
original program was tested on primarily non-Hispanic White (NHW) mothers with breast cancer. The
Conexiones program represents a culturally adapted version of the original parenting program and is now
ready for testing with Hispanic mothers living in the border counties of Dona Ana, New Mexico and El Paso,
Texas. Eligible women will be diagnosed within 8 months with non-advanced cancer and will be mothers of a
child 5-17 years of age. Study participants will be recruited from medical providers, non-profit organizations,
and multiple public channels in the recruitment counties. After completing signed informed consent and
baseline measures, mothers will be randomized to an experimental or control group. The experimental group
will receive 5 fully scripted telephone-delivered educational sessions every 2 weeks by specially trained patient
educators. The control group will be mailed “Taking Time,” a booklet from NCI that describes the importance
of patients expressing their feelings, getting emotional support, and taking control over their illness by learning
all they can from their medical team. The primary endpoint for efficacy will be assessed at 3 months post-
baseline using Linear Mixed Models within an intent to treat analysis on standardized measures of behavioral-
emotional adjustment of the child and diagnosed mother. The stability of changes will be assessed on 66% of
the study sample 6 months post-baseline using both descriptive and inferential statistics. With an estimated
Effect size of 0.52 for the primary outcome measure of the child’s behavioral-emotional adjustment, the
retained sample at 3-months will be 116, 58 per group. A total of 155 eligible mothers will be enrolled based on
an expected 25% attrition rate from all causes. Study results will be essential as a next step in testing
Conexiones with other Hispanic subgroups in a larger trial and readying the program for wider testing and
dissemination to provider and non-profit organizations serving Hispanic parents with cancer throughout the
United States.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10006795
- **Project number:** 5U54CA132383-13
- **Recipient organization:** NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY LAS CRUCES
- **Principal Investigator:** Rebecca Lorena Palacios
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $169,771
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2007-09-30 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10006795

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10006795, Project 4: Testing the Efficacy of the Culturally-Adapted Conexiones Program for Hispanic Mothers  Diagnosed with Cancer (5U54CA132383-13). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10006795. Licensed CC0.

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