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The objective of this study is to determine whether parent characteristics and practices differentiate between substance using and non-using children in Mexico. Data consisted of 52,171 children (i.e., 5th and 6th grade) who participated in the National Survey of Drug Use Among Students. The relative importance of student reported parenting factors in classifying lifetime substance use were assessed across outcomes with a logistic regression algorithm. Machine learning algorithms utilizing parent characteristics and practices classified tobacco, marijuana, inhalants, and other substance use. Parenting factors were poor classifiers of lifetime alcohol use. The algorithm generally selected important classifiers broadly associated with parental illicit substance use and monitoring practices across child substance use outcomes. Findings suggest that leveraging parental influences during childhood may be a high value point of intervention for preventing non-alcoholic substance use. Important classifiers identified by the current study represent potential targets for childhood substance use prevention efforts.

Machine learning provides a method of identifying factors that discriminate between substance users and non-users potentially improving our ability to match need with available prevention services within context with limited resources. Our aim was to utilize machine learning to identify high impact factors that best discriminate between substance users and non-users among a national sample (N = 52,171) of Mexican children (i.e., 5th, 6th grade; Mage = 10.40, SDage = 0.82). Participants reported information on individual factors (e.g., gender, grade, religiosity, sensation seeking, self-esteem, perceived risk of substance use), socioecological factors (e.g., neighborhood quality, community type, peer influences, parenting), and lifetime substance use (i.e., alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, inhalant). Findings suggest that best friend and father illicit substance use (i.e., drugs other than tobacco or alcohol) and respondent sex (i.e., boys) were consistent and important discriminators between children who tried substances and those that did not. Friend cigarette use was a strong predictor of lifetime use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana. Friend alcohol use was specifically predictive of lifetime alcohol and tobacco use. Perceived danger of engaging in frequent alcohol and inhalant use predicted lifetime alcohol and inhalant use. Overall, findings suggest that best friend and father illicit substance use and respondent’s sex appear to be high impact screening questions associated with substance initiation during childhood for Mexican youths. These data help practitioners narrow prevention efforts by helping identify youth at highest risk.

There is a significant gap between the prevalence of child and adolescent mental illness in Mexico and access to mental health services, especially those that are evidence-based. School-based interventions can significantly narrow this gap. The study evaluated the effectiveness of the interventions Dejando Huellitas en tu Vida (Leaving Traces on Your Life [Huellitas]) and Criando con Amor, Promoviendo Armonia y Superacion en Mexico (Raising Children with Love, Promoting Harmony and Self-Improvement [CAPAS-Mx]). Participants were 215 caregivers (Mage = 38.4 years, SD = 8.9, 82.9% women) and 202 children (Mage = 8.6 years, SD = 1.3, 44.06% girls) from four public schools randomly assigned to four experimental conditions (Huellitas, CAPAS-Mx, Huellitas-CAPAS-Mx, and Control) with pre-test and post-test assessments. Caregivers in the multicomponent condition reported significantly lower scores in child externalizing problems and higher scores in discipline, skills encouragement, social adaptation, emotional control and prosocial behavior than caregivers in the control group. There were also improvements in parents’ use of effective discipline and skills encouragement in the CAPAS-Mx group over the control group. Among the children, only those in the Huellitas condition showed a decrease in mediation. Findings support the implementation of the multicomponent intervention in public school settings. ISRCTN11345846, at https://www.isrctn.com/.

Parents shape their children's behaviors and impact their developmental trajectories. Despite this, few studies have examined the potential relationship between child reported parenting factors and lifetime substance use and use intentions. The current study examined the potential impact of parenting factors (i.e., positive parenting, supervision, parental illicit substance use, substance-specific communication) on early substance use and intentions among Latinx children. Data for the present study utilized a representative sample of Mexican children (n = 52,171; 5th and 6th grades) who participated in a national survey on substance use. Children reported their demographics, lifetime substance use/intentions, and perceived parenting characteristic and practices. Child reported parental (i.e., individual or both parents) illicit substance use was associated with the largest increases in risk for reporting lifetime use of all substances examined. Higher levels of positive parenting were consistently associated with reductions in risk for reporting intentions for and use of all substances examined. Parent-child substance specific communication was not significantly related to child reported lifetime use or use intentions, with the exception of a minor decrease in the odds of reporting lifetime inhalant use. Supervision was associated with small to modest increase in risk. Substance use prevention efforts targeting Latinx populations may benefit from promoting positive parenting and direct supervision during childhood. Targeted prevention efforts may be needed for Latinx children exposed to parental illicit substance use, as they may be especially at risk for early substance initiation.

Research suggests that parenting programs are effective for preventing behavioral and emotional difficulties in children, but a lot more attention needs to be paid to issues of context and culture during the development, testing, and implementation of these interventions. The views and needs of underserved and disenfranchised communities in the USA and the Global South are often not taken into account for the development and testing of interventions. The successful implementation of evidence-based interventions for vulnerable children and families in underserved and marginalized communities requires careful consideration of how existing paradigms of prevention, evaluation, and implementation science impact issues of social justice and equity. This paper will describe how a team of parenting program researchers has been collaborating with their partners globally in generating local knowledge by balancing the need for rigorous scientific methods with issues of power. Authors from the USA, Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia draw on their experiences regarding challenges and successes with issues regarding study design and measurement, the transferability and adaptation of interventions, and the dissemination and implementation of different parenting interventions while placing communities at the center of their efforts through participatory methods. We describe innovative approaches that span the continuum of intervention development, adaptation, optimization, evaluation, implementation, and scale-up of different parenting programs for vulnerable children and families across the world. We conclude by offering specific and pragmatic recommendations to increase access of culturally relevant and effective parenting programs in these communities.

Introduction In the international context, Mexico is a country with low drug use level, in turn, it shows an increase when considering the most recent epidemiologic trends. In order to maintain an updated analysis of drug use in general population and to identify the most at risk groups, the National Survey of Addictions (ENA) was held in 2011. Objetive The aim of the study was to determine the lifetime prevalence for any drug and any illegal drug use at a national and regional level, in population aged 12 to 65 years. Also, to acknowledge drug consumption trends since 2002 in Mexico. Material and methods ENA 2011 survey is a randomized, multistage probabilistic study. It is representative at a national level and also for eight regions of the country, including rural and urban population. The sample was 3 849 adolescents and 12 400 adults who answered a computerized version of a standardized questionnaire containing sections of tobacco, alcohol, medical drugs (opiates, tranquilizers, sedatives, amphetamines) and illegal drugs (marijuana, cocaine, crack, hallucinogens, inhalants, heroin and methamphetamines). All participants read and signed an informed consent. Emphasis was made on the voluntary and confidential use of the information. Results The national lifetime prevalence of any drug grew between 2002 and 2011, increasing significantly from 5.0% to 7.8%, while consumption of any illegal drugs increased from 4.1% to 7.2%. By sex, in men, any drug use increased from 8.6% to 13%. Illegal drugs increased from 8.0% to 12.5%. In women, use of any drug increased from 2.1% to 3.0% and use of any illegal drug increased from 1.0% to 2.3%. Marijuana is the first drug of choice (6.5%) followed by cocaine (3.6%). Considering regions, any drug consumption grew significantly in the Western (5.5% to 10.3%), Northeast (5.5% to 10.3%), North Central (7.5% to 9.2%) and South Central (4.2% to 7.5%). As for illegal drugs, there is also a statistically significant increase in these regions, however, growth was proportionally bigger in South Central region, going from 3.5% to 6.8%. Conclusions Results from this study indicate a growth in the consumption of illegal drugs from 2002 to 2011, especially in marijuana. It also shows that men from 18 to 34 years are the most affected by this consumption, while increases in adolescent men have been low. Moreover, the study shows that those who have received some type of prevention, showed a smaller consumption prevalence, indicating that further work is needed in this area with young people to consolidate activities of health promotion and drug use prevention, working with infant population is needed, including a systematic evaluation of the actions mentioned above. In the international context, data from this study confirms that Mexico continues reporting low levels of drug consumption.