The GANA Program: A Tailoring Approach to Adapting Parent Child Interaction Therapy for Mexican Americans

Abstract

The current manuscript describes the process of developing the GANA program, a version of PCIT that has been culturally adapted for Mexican American families. The adaptation process involved combining information from 1) clinical literature on Mexican American families, 2) empirical literature on barriers to treatment access and effectiveness, and 3) qualitative data drawn from focus groups and interviews with Mexican American mothers, fathers, and therapists on how PCIT could be modified to be more culturally effective. Information from these sources was used to generate a list of potential modifications to PCIT, which were then reviewed by a panel of expert therapists and chnical and mental health researchers. The resulting GANA program and ongoing research to evaluate its effectiveness with Mexican American families is described.