Uploaded June 2013 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Flavio F. Marsiglia, Ph.D., Director, Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center, Arizona State University, presents an overview of some common challenges and opportunities related to the cultural adaptation of social work interventions. Cultural adaptation is presented as a necessary step before adopting an evidence base intervention with ethnic and other cultural minority communities. The presentation provides a general framework to examine the cultural appropriateness of existing interventions as well as specific strategies to conduct an assessment of cultural relevancy. An explicit cultural adaptation model and the outlines of a cultural adaptation protocol are discussed. A case study and lessons learned while conducting cultural adaptation research with Mexican American and American Indian communities in the Southwest will illustrate the application of the proposed model, followed by implications and recommendations for culturally grounded social work practice.
Flavio F. Marsiglia, Ph.D., Director, Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center, Arizona State University, presents an overview of some common challenges and opportunities related to the cultural adaptation of social work interventions. Cultural adaptation is presented as a necessary step before adopting an evidence base intervention with ethnic and other cultural minority communities. The presentation provides a general framework to examine the cultural appropriateness of existing interventions as well as specific strategies to conduct an assessment of cultural relevancy. An explicit cultural adaptation model and the outlines of a cultural adaptation protocol are discussed. A case study and lessons learned while conducting cultural adaptation research with Mexican American and American Indian communities in the Southwest will illustrate the application of the proposed model, followed by implications and recommendations for culturally grounded social work practice.
