Bicultural Effectiveness Training: A Treatment Intervention for Enhancing Intercultural Adjustment in Cuban American Families

Abstract

This report describes a treatment intervention for enhancing intercultural adjustment in Cuban American families. Bicultural Effectiveness Training (BET) is a clearly defined and easily replicable, culturally sensitive intervention that targets on a specific problem area: intergenerational conflicts and conduct disorders in adolescents, either provoked or exacerbated by the stress of acculturation and cross-cultural adaptation. Previous research on acculturation, biculturalism and adjustment are reviewed and the basic and theoretical features of the BET model are discussed. The BET intervention modality described in this paper was designed to capitalize on certain features of culture conflict in order to ameliorate acculturative stress. By reducing culture conflict and acculturative stress BET enhances adjustment in Cuban American families and reduces conduct disorders in adolescents. BET teaches family members that skills for effective functioning in different value contexts (cultural or otherwise) can be viewed as complementary and enriching to the individual.

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