# Developing a parent-adolescent relationship abuse prevention intervention for pediatric primary care

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2024 · $198,750

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Adolescent relationship abuse (ARA), defined as physical, psychological, cyber, sexual abuse, or stalking in
the context of a teen dating relationship, is pervasive and associated with myriad negative health outcomes for
youth. Parental monitoring of adolescents’ interpersonal relationships and activities is a powerful and
modifiable protective factor to prevent ARA. Promising parent-adolescent interventions have emerged;
however, some implementation challenges may exist particularly with recruiting and retaining parents. A
potentially important setting to engaging parents and adolescents in ARA prevention is pediatric primary care,
as parents accompany adolescents to annual well-child visits. Our team conducted interviews with 60
adolescents, parents, and healthcare providers who stated ARA is not currently discussed during well-child
visits and an intervention around this topic is needed for primary care settings. However, a recent systematic
review of sexual health and ARA interventions in primary care identified only one effective program focused on
ARA, which was designed for older adolescents in school-based health centers and has no content around
parental monitoring. Our goal for this R21 proposal is to first develop a brief ARA prevention intervention for
middle-school aged adolescents (11 to 15) and their parents for the pediatric primary care setting and then
conduct a pilot trial with parent-adolescent dyads. We will use the Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation
Model of Behavioral change (COM-B) to guide intervention development, which describes how capability
(knowledge about dating/ARA, self-efficacy to prevent ARA), opportunity (opportunity to engage in dating/ARA
parental monitoring, resource utilization), and motivation (interest/desire to engage in dating/ARA parental
monitoring) drive behavioral change. In Aim 1, guided by a community collaborative, we will use an intervention
mapping approach to develop a provider-delivered ARA prevention intervention to be implemented within
pediatric primary care settings. Informed by Aim 1 results, we will conduct a pilot trial with 55 parent-adolescent
dyads within 4 pediatric primary care clinic sites, with the primary outcomes of assessing trial feasibility and
intervention acceptability. Secondary exploratory outcomes will be: 1) behavioral change objectives pre and
post (1, 6 months) intervention through parent and adolescent surveys; and 2) implementation barriers and
facilitators using Proctor’s implementation outcomes framework through parent, adolescent, and provider
interviews. This proposal leverages a multidisciplinary team of violence prevention and family-based
intervention experts, as well as violence prevention leaders from Futures Without Violence and the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. Results from this study will inform a future R01 proposal to conduct a fully-
powered hybrid type 1 trial to test the effectiveness of the intervention, as well as co...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10810040
- **Project number:** 1R21HD109627-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Maya Ragavan
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $198,750
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-02-03 → 2026-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10810040

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10810040, Developing a parent-adolescent relationship abuse prevention intervention for pediatric primary care (1R21HD109627-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10810040. Licensed CC0.

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