REAL Parenting Alcohol and Substance Use App
Condition: Underage Drinking; Alcohol Use, Underage
MeSH terms: Alcohol Drinking; Underage Drinking
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      High school students' alcohol, nicotine, and marijuana use are major public health problems.
      Among the many consequences of these risky behaviors are impaired driving and impaired
      passenger fatalities as well as increased health risks. Both school administrators and
      parents have requested parent-based interventions (PBIs)for the general high school
      population that include content on alcohol, nicotine and marijuana use. In addition, digital
      materials are needed for the "on-the-go" parent. The proposed research will address this
      omission, curb the alarming trends noted above, and move the field forward by conducting a
      randomized controlled trial testing a modified, digital version of the Parent Handbook for
      the all high school students that includes additional content for parents to have broader
      discussions about combined alcohol nicotine and marijuana use alone (referred to as REAL
      Parenting). Parent-teen dyads will be invited to participate and complete baseline assessment
      and parents will receive the REAL Parenting or active control materials shortly afterwards.
      This will allow an examination of the impact of the RP on alcohol use, and associated
      consequences and sustained effects across the follow-up period.
    

Detailed description: 
      The goal of this Phase II SBIR is to provide an efficient, engaging, and effective means to
      enhance parents' ability to reduce prevalence of alcohol use and consequences, and other
      substance use through the development and evaluation of REAL Parenting (RP). RP is a brief,
      interactive, self-paced, and digital curriculum for parents of high-school-aged adolescents,
      a frequently neglected population created from the evidence-based Parent Handbook,available
      in hard copy and DVD for college-bound youth only. The curriculum is needed because most
      parent-based prevention interventions target children or young adolescents, neglecting older
      adolescents, despite that fact that alcohol use increases in frequency and risk through
      midadolescence. Also, unlike other evidence-based parenting curricula, RP is brief, requires
      only the parents, does not require training, and can be used "on the go" through any digital
      device. This provides a market niche for the proposed project that addresses this curriculum
      gap through the innovative use of both technology and prevention science. This format will
      allow us to personalize or target parents based on their communication style and allows
      parents to customize their experience by choosing or clicking through the optional content.
      Personalization and customization are two essential engagement strategies for digital
      prevention interventions.
    

Intervention name(s): REAL Parenting; Active Control Materials
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Other
Intervention description(s): REAL Parenting digital intervention emphasizing parent-teen/young adult communication on drinking/risks of drinking/risks of alcohol abuse, with the addition of a communication component on the risks of nicotine and marijuana use, with the goal of reducing alcohol, nicotine and marijuana use in college students.; NIAAA materials on underage drinking for parents
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Investigator)
Primary purpose: Prevention