Adults In The Making Prevention Trial
Condition: Alcohol Drinking
MeSH terms: Alcohol Drinking
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      This study was a randomized prevention trial investigating the efficacy of the Adults in the
      Making (AIM) prevention program against a control condition. The primary outcome variable is
      alcohol use. The study sample were 367 African American seniors in high school and their
      primary caregivers. The AIM program is a 6 session (12 hour) family-centered intervention
      designed to deter alcohol use.
    

Detailed description: 
      The study investigators designed a multicomponent prevention program to deter substance use
      among African American emerging adults in rural Georgia (SAAF-Emerging Adult Program,
      SAAF-EAP). The intervention's delivery is modeled after an existing prevention program
      designed by Dr. Brody called, The Strong African American Families (SAAF) program and
      included a series of separate weekly sessions for emerging adults, their parents, and
      extended family members, as well as sessions in which participants interact with one another
      to apply the skills learned in the separate sessions. The sample consisted of 690 families
      with a high school senior, half of whom will be assigned randomly to a prevention group and
      half of whom will be assigned to a control group. Pre-intervention, post-intervention, and
      follow-up assessments of emerging adults' substance use were conducted with the entire
      sample. The study started when the participants were high school seniors, and followed them
      and their families as the youths enter emerging adulthood. The conceptual model that guided
      the program incorporated the following predictors: (1) autonomy-promoting parenting and
      responsive family relationships, characterized by developmentally appropriate instrumental
      and emotional support, expectations and discussions about emerging adults' roles and
      responsibilities, affectively positive relationships that feature open communication, and
      adaptive racial socialization that includes strategies for dealing with discrimination; (2)
      contextual stressors, including racial discrimination, poverty, and limitations in
      educational and occupational opportunities; (3) negative emotions and the avoidant coping
      responses they elicit; (4) emerging adults' future orientation, self-regulation, emotion
      regulation, racial identity, and sense of adult status; (5) affiliations with substance-using
      friends and romantic partners; and (6) cognitive antecedents of substance use, including
      prototypes of substance-using agemates and willingness to use substances in risk-conducive
      situations. To examine these constructs, the investigators implemented a multi-informant
      design that included assessments from emerging adults, their friends and romantic partners,
      their primary caregivers, and their extended family members.
    

Intervention name(s): Adults in the Making program
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): The AIM prevention program, modeled after an existing family-based skills-training intervention in a group format for rural African American preadolescents, consists of six consecutive weekly group meetings held at community facilities, with separate parent and youth skill-building curricula and a family curriculum. Each of the six meetings includes separate, concurrent training sessions for parents and youth, followed by a joint parent-youth session during which the families practice the skills they learned in their separate sessions. Concurrent and family sessions each last 1 hour. Thus, both parents and youth receive 12 hours of prevention training.
Other intervention name(s): AIM
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention