The Contextual Adaptation and Digitization of an Online Parenting Program for Displaced Families: A Pilot Study With Latiné Immigrant Parents

Immigrant and refugee families experience heightened stress and trauma before, during, and after their migration journeys. In the last decade, research on parenting interventions for immigrant and refugee families has increased, inspiring researchers to explore effective, efficient, and sustainable methods that enhance service utilization and resilience. While trauma-informed preventive interventions are available in the United States and other high-income countries, accessible contextually and culturally appropriate interventions remain a challenge for forcibly displaced families. Considering the twin phenomena of 21st century globalization and digital technology, cultural adaptation and digitization of preventive interventions appear to be crucial to increasing access for families but overwhelming for interventionists to implement. Therefore, we present a step-by-step overview for researchers and family therapists to demystify the contextual adaptation and digitization process for cross-cultural evidence-based preventive interventions. This unique adaptation approach is intended to promote accessible programs developed for immigrant and refugee families from various cultures and with diverse migration experiences. The paper describes how a university-based program development team applied cultural adaptation frameworks, community-based participatory methods, and digital technology to contextually adapt and digitize Parenting in the Moment, the first digital trauma-informed parenting program for displaced families in the United States. Researchers and clinicians may use and test this unique adaptation approach with other family-based interventions.