# Developing an Adolescent Relationship Abuse Prevention Intervention for Hispanic Immigrant Families

> **NIH NIH K23** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2022 · $154,107

## Abstract

Adolescent relationship abuse (ARA), defined as physical, psychological, sexual abuse, or stalking in the
context of a teen dating relationship, is pervasive and associated with myriad negative health outcomes for
youth. Parental monitoring of adolescents’ interpersonal relationships and activities is a powerful and
modifiable protective factor to prevent ARA. However, for Hispanic immigrant families, parent-adolescent
acculturation gaps (i.e., differences in acculturation) may create challenges in using parental monitoring as an
ARA prevention tool. Less is known about which specific acculturation gaps are related to decreased parental
monitoring and increased ARA. Furthermore, few parent-adolescent ARA prevention interventions exist,
especially ones culturally tailored for Hispanic immigrant families. The goal of this mentored career
development award is to identify specific acculturation gaps that create the most challenges to achieving
optimal parental monitoring and address these acculturation gaps through development of a parent-adolescent
ARA prevention intervention for Hispanic immigrant families. Dating Matters for Parents (DMP), a Centers for
Disease Control developed ARA prevention intervention for middle school aged youth and their parents, will be
used as a foundation for intervention development. Guided by an experienced, multidisciplinary mentorship
team and with strong institutional support, Dr. Ragavan, who is the PI and an early career physician-scientist,
will build upon a upon a descriptive research background to gain critical new skills in: 1) assessment of parent-
adolescent interaction and the development of parent-adolescent relationships; 2) theory-based, stakeholder-
involved intervention development; 3) clinical trial design and analysis; and 4) leadership and team
management. These career goals are tightly linked to three research aims. In Aim 1, Dr. Ragavan will use
observation-based techniques to examine, in a sample of 50 Hispanic parent-adolescent dyads, which
acculturation gaps are related to parental monitoring and ARA and thus most important to target during
intervention development. Informed by Aim 1 results and guided by a stakeholder advisory committee, in Aim 2
Dr. Ragavan will use the Method for Program Adaptation through Community Engagement framework to
develop a novel parent-adolescent ARA prevention intervention for Hispanic immigrant families (called Juntos
[“Together”]). In Aim 3, Dr. Ragavan will conduct a pilot two-armed randomized clinical trial of Juntos among
middle school aged Hispanic adolescents and a first-generation immigrant parent. Primary outcomes of the
pilot RCT include feasibility and acceptability; a secondary exploratory outcome will be descriptively assessing
candidate outcomes for inclusion in the fully powered trial. By completing this K23, Dr. Ragavan will have the
training, experience, and preliminary data needed to become an independent physician-scientist leading
studies align...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10369170
- **Project number:** 1K23HD104925-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Maya Ragavan
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $154,107
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-08-01 → 2025-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10369170

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10369170, Developing an Adolescent Relationship Abuse Prevention Intervention for Hispanic Immigrant Families (1K23HD104925-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-29 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10369170. Licensed CC0.

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