Conjoint behavioral consultation and students of Latine origin: Effects on social and behavioral outcomes at school and home

Latine students represent the second largest racial/ethnic group of enrolled students in the United States. Despite assets that can position them to experience success in school, Latine youth often experience persistent disparities in educational outcomes. Conjoint behavioral consultation (CBC) is a family-school partnership intervention efficacious for supporting students' social-behavioral skill development, yet its efficacy with Latine students has not been documented. This study investigated the efficacy of CBC on social, behavioral, and school-related challenges of Latine students, and conditions that may moderate its effects. The study used an ethnic-homogenous cluster-randomized control trial design to examine efficacy and uncover within-ethnic group variation in treatment effects. Latine students in the CBC but not the control group experienced significant benefits on several outcomes (i.e., teacher-reported social skills and behavioral symptoms; and parent-reported social skills, adaptive skills, behavioral symptoms, and daily reports of prosocial behaviors and problem behaviors). For other outcomes at school only (i.e., teacher reported adaptive skills and school problems), improvements were noted for both groups, with trends suggesting greater improvements for students receiving CBC. Select school, family, and student variables moderated CBC effects. Implications and limitations are presented.