Mobile Technology to Reduce Teen Substance Misuse
Purpose
The goal of this study is to test the newly expanded WisePath for Teens (WPT) for substance use app, a direct-to-consumer paired mobile phone app for iOS and Android platforms that supports parents/guardians in delivering evidence-based techniques to reduce youth substance abuse and co-occurring mental health problems. This project will expand WPT for use with a general population of teens with problematic substance use and their parents to reduce substance abuse, its harmful effects, opioid overdoses, and progression to substance use disorders, as well as other behavioral health problems that are exacerbated by substance abuse and/or interfere with substance abuse treatment.
Conditions
- Substance Use
- Substance Abuse
- Suicide
- Adolescent
Eligibility
- Eligible Ages
- Over 13 Years
- Eligible Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria
Youth: - Resides in United States - 13-17 years of age - Fluent in English - Possesses and is the primary user of an Android or iPhone-based smartphone with a data plan that they use on a daily basis - Currently residing in the same household with the linked caregiver/legal guardian participant at least five days a week - Meets criteria for mild-moderate or severe SA (for any drug or alcohol) on the Screening to Brief Intervention (S2BI), indicated by answering that they have used any substance at least once per month within the past 90 days. - Possesses and is the primary user of an Android or iPhone-based smartphone with a data plan Caregivers: - Resides in United States - 18 years or older - Fluent in English - Owns and is the primary user of an Android or iPhone-based smartphone with a data plan that they use on a daily basis - Able and willing to receive and send several (1-3 times/week) text messages from study staff during study participation - Is the primary caregiver of a youth aged 13-17 years who lives in the caregiver's home at least five days a week - Caregiver indicates a substance concern for the target youth, defined as either a+b OR c: 1. uses alcohol, marijuana, and/or another substance, AND 2. expresses that they are concerned (a score of 3 or higher) about that use on a 5-pt Likert scale (3 = concerned, 4 = very concerned, 5 = extremely concerned). OR 3. The target youth participated in counseling or another form of treatment (e.g., medication assisted treatment) because of a concern about alcohol, marijuana, or other substance use.
Exclusion Criteria
Youth: - Participated in previous iKinnect or WisePath for Teens research in the past 2 years Caregivers: - Participated in previous iKinnect or WisePath for Teens research in the past 2 years - Currently involved with the child protective service system due to a concern about child maltreatment (i.e., abuse or neglect).
Study Design
- Phase
- N/A
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Parallel Assignment
- Intervention Model Description
- Youth will be randomized to condition after they and their parent provide assent/consent. As parents are yoked to youth, their assignment is automatically determined. A computerized minimization randomization procedure will be used to match youth across conditions on: (1) age (1=13-14; 2=15-17) and (2) substance use severity (1= mild-moderate SUD risk; 2= severe SUD risk). This randomization method results in equal numbers of participants in each condition at different levels of the matching variable and is superior to both simple and stratified randomization in producing balance for separate prognostic variables, particularly when the number of strata is large in comparison with number of subjects. The end will be 100 youth/parent WPT dyads, 100 WPT+PSS dyads, and 100 control/WILLOW dyads.
- Primary Purpose
- Other
- Masking
- Double (Participant, Investigator)
- Masking Description
- Participants will be blind to condition other than the one to which they are assigned; Investigators will be blind to condition until data analysis is complete.
Arm Groups
| Arm | Description | Assigned Intervention |
|---|---|---|
|
Experimental WPT |
Youth and parents allocated to the WPT condition will use WPT, a newly developed app to support parents delivering (and for youth, receiving) evidence-based practices to reduce youth's substance abuse and other significant behavioral health problems that commonly co-occur with substance abuse, exacerbate substance abuse and/or interfere with their treatment. |
|
|
Experimental WPT + PSS |
Youth and parents allocated to the WPT + PSS condition will use WPT paired with a family peer support specialist. |
|
|
Active Comparator WILLOW |
Caregivers and teens allocated to the control condition will each be provided with access to the study-developed webpage that has links to freely-available, online, high-quality resources related to teen substance use and general stress reduction, with all links tailored to each webpage's intended audience (i.e., caregivers will be given links to parent-facing resources and teens will be given links to teen-facing or teen-appropriate webpages and resources). Dyads will receive simple instructions on how to save the webpage to their phone's home screen (similar to an app icon) to make access easier and more like accessing an installed mobile app. |
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Recruiting Locations
Baltimore, Maryland 21201
More Details
- Status
- Recruiting
- Sponsor
- Evidence-Based Practice Institute, Seattle, WA
Detailed Description
This project will test the newly expanded WisePath for Teens (WPT), a paired mobile app to support parents delivering, and youth receiving, evidence-based practices to reduce youth's substance abuse (SA) and other significant behavioral health problems that commonly co-occur with SA, exacerbate SA, and/or interfere with youth's treatment. Through a collaborative "discussion" with a chatbot, WPT will collect information about the youth's substance use and other behavioral health problems, utilizing methods designed to enhance motivation and engagement. Using a shared decision-making process, WPT will configure to address the youth's specific SA triggers and functions and other identified top problems (e.g., depression, stress, insomnia). The platform will generate recommended parent- and family-focused strategies for the parent app and will use the parent-teen interactive card system to deliver evidence-based family therapy tasks, tailoring parent notifications to match specific teen risks. This study includes a 12-week randomized controlled trial (RCT) with 300 youth participants aged 13-17 years and their primary caregiver (dyads). Dyads will be randomly assigned to use WisePath for Teens (WPT; n=100 dyads), WisePath for Teens plus parental support by an assigned peer support specialist (WPT+PSS; n=100 dyads), or an active control condition involving access to a webpage of resources relating to substance use and general stress reduction; presented resources are updated every 2-3 days (Control; n=100 dyads). We will also provide simple instructions on how to save the webpage to their phone's home screen (similar to an app icon) to make access easier and more like accessing an installed mobile app. Youth participants will be matched across condition on age and substance use severity. Participants will be assessed at three time points: baseline, one intermediate time point (at either 4 weeks or 8 weeks), and 12 weeks. The study uses a Planned Missingness Design that assesses change over time for each participant across three time points spread across four assessment opportunities lasting a total of 12 weeks. Specifically, each study participant will complete measures at baseline and also at 12 weeks; each family dyad will be randomly assigned to also complete one additional assessment at either week 4 or week 8. We predict that participants in both WPT conditions will report significantly greater decreases in substance use and associated risky behaviors, greater decreases in stress, greater increases in capacity for coping with distress, and superior satisfaction ratings compared to control participants. We predict in comparison to WPT use alone, those in the enhanced condition will have superior outcomes across all measures. Primary youth-reported outcomes include: substance use and related problems (school and crime/violence); recovery environment quality; mental health (internalizing and externalizing symptoms), and family functioning (conflict, involvement). Primary caregiver-reported outcome variables include: family functioning (conflict, involvement), parenting skills (monitoring/supervision, discipline consistency, positivity), and parenting cognitions (perceived stress and efficacy). Caregivers will also report on youth mental health symptoms. App satisfaction and use of technology outcomes (i.e., degree of app usage, features used) will be examined as between-groups differences for WPT vs. WPT+PSS arms, as well as potential predictors of changes across time in caregiver and youth outcomes.