Research Summary
The idea behind 7 Secretos Escolares was to develop a culturally appropriate study-skills program for Latino students that would involve parents and children in the process of setting up a good home-study environment.
Through a grant* from the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development, a research and development team, along with expert consultants, gathered data, developed video and print materials based on formative data, and tested the effectiveness of the program.
Eighty Latino middle-school students and their families were included in the study, divided between a group that received the intervention and one that did not. Baseline data were gathered at the beginning of the project. Each family was contacted nine times during a nine-week period to assess the effect of the intervention.
On a variety of measures, families in the intervention group derived benefits from the program compared to the control-group families. Students reported having a home environment more conducive to studying (quiet and privacy), and spent more time studying, and teachers reported that students completed more of their assigned homework.
*Grant # R43 HD30643-01
