# Testing a Brief Substance Misuse Preventive Intervention for Parents of Youth

> **NIH NIH R01** · TUFTS UNIVERSITY BOSTON · 2020 · $77,294

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
 The prevention of substance use and misuse among adolescents is a national public health priority.
Universal prevention programs that include parents/guardians (referred to as “parents”) in this effort have been
proven efficacious in preventing and reducing substance use problems among adolescents. However, the
programs that have been most effective are resource and participant intensive. In addition, the majority of the
current programs are not gender-specific and in some cases, long-term effects have been shown for one
gender but not the other. The purpose of the current study is to test the efficacy of a brief, communication-
based, substance use preventive intervention for parents of pre/early adolescents. The proposal is based on
data from a NIDA-funded study where we conducted a pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the
intervention among 70 parents/guardians and their children. The intervention was found to be acceptable and
feasible to participants and preliminarily efficacious at increasing parent-child communication about substance
misuse. The purpose of the pilot study was to lay the groundwork for a fully powered efficacy trial of the
intervention, which we are now proposing with 500 parent-child dyads. The brief intervention framework utilizes
a one-time in-person session and a follow-up phone call with a communication specialist to facilitate parents'
roles as preventionists, which will focus on family interactions at meals, the role of peers in substance use, and
parent-child communication about substance use. A particularly innovative component is a focus on eating
meals together as a primary intervention strategy to facilitate communication. For the in-person session,
parents will be asked to review a handbook with gender-specific information that also emphasizes engaging in
family meals, communication, and talking with their child about the harms of substance use. For the home-
based component, tips and reminders with content from the handbooks will be sent via text messages through-
out the three-month study period. Parents in the comparison condition will receive a handbook, similar in length
and structure, on nutrition and physical activity, as well as receive comparison text messages. Framed within
the context of the Ecodevelopmental Theory, we hypothesize that over the study period, parents randomized to
the intervention will have an increased frequency of parent-child communication about substance use. We also
hypothesize that these parents will have more positive and fewer negative family interactions during meals and
qualitatively better content of conversations about substance use with their children compared to parents in the
comparison condition. Furthermore, we hypothesize that compared to children of parents in the comparison
condition, children of parents who receive the intervention will self-report reduced intentions and willingness to
use substances, reduced affiliation with substa...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9982555
- **Project number:** 3R01DA045073-02S1
- **Recipient organization:** TUFTS UNIVERSITY BOSTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Margie Renee Skeer
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $77,294
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2018-07-01 → 2023-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9982555

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9982555, Testing a Brief Substance Misuse Preventive Intervention for Parents of Youth (3R01DA045073-02S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9982555. Licensed CC0.

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