Martial Arts as Early Intervention for Teen Drug Abuse
Condition: Adolescent; Substance Use
MeSH terms: Substance-Related Disorders
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      This is a Stage 1A/1B behavioral therapy development project with the aim of developing and
      piloting an early intervention based upon traditional martial arts for adolescents who are in
      the early stages of substance use/misuse.

      The primary aims of this study are:

      1) To develop a manualized version of an existing, typical traditional martial arts program,
      modified to target a reduction in substance use and the associated behavioral and
      psychosocial problems for adolescents in the early stages of substance use or misuse, based
      on principles derived from empirically-based prevention programs. 2) To obtain preliminary
      pilot data on recruitment feasibility, validity of assessments, and estimates of the effect
      size of the intervention in reducing substance use and improving prosocial behavioral and
      psychosocial outcomes. 3) To refine and further develop the manualized program based on pilot
      data and utilizing feedback from the initial cohort of participants, traditional martial arts
      program instructors and substance abuse treatment experts. The goals of these revisions would
      be to maximize the impact of the program on substance use and behavioral outcomes, while
      retaining the core features of a traditional martial arts program to ensure the feasibility
      of implementing, sustaining, and disseminating such a program in existing community-based
      martial arts programs. 4) To develop procedures for training interventionists (i.e., martial
      arts instructors and research assistants) and for monitoring program adherence to ensure
      fidelity. 5) To conduct a small pilot study of the refined manualized program to enable us to
      estimate the effect size of the intervention and provide information for estimating power for
      a larger randomized controlled trial should the results of this intervention prove promising
      in terms of positive impact on the primary and secondary outcome measures: decreased drug use
      and improvement in psychosocial functioning and behavioral problems (including aggression).
    


Intervention name(s): Modified traditional martial arts training
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Twice weekly hour-long training sessions. Classes will not vary significantly from those classes already taught at the karate school, with the following exceptions: 1) the focus of training will be primarily on the non-combative components of martial arts training, 2) there will be a higher instructor to student ratio, 3) belt advancement will be based not only on mastery of karate techniques, but also on achieving the predetermined goals as described above, and 4) weekly 5-10 minute talks will be delivered by the primary instructor and will consist of concepts relevant to substance abuse treatment (including both issues directly relating to drug use and the common skills deficits seen in "at risk" youth) and how these issues relate to martial arts concepts.
Intervention model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: Adolescent; Substance Use; Early Intervention; Martial Arts; Karate