# mHealth Intervention via Mentors: Preventing Substance Use, Sexual Risk and Violence among Inner City Youth through Technology-Enhanced Mentoring

> **NIH NIH K01** · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $178,871

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
This K01 proposal, “mHealth Intervention via Mentors: Preventing Substance Use, Sexual Risk, and Violence
among Inner City Baltimore Youth through Technology-Enhanced Mentoring,” addresses two fields of study
relevant to adolescent health that deserve further attention, particularly in how they can intersect to improve
public health: youth mentoring and mobile health (mHealth) prevention interventions. Adolescents growing up
in low-income urban areas such as Baltimore are at particularly high risk for unhealthy practices such as
substance use, sexual risk, and engagement in violence. For adolescents who lack socially protective resources
such as parents, attentive teachers, or community networks, mentors can play a significant role in helping to
reduce stress, prevent negative health behaviors, and model positive health behaviors. However, little is known
about the pathways by which mentee health behavior change occurs, especially for the prevention of substance
use, how matched mentors can effectively communicate health promotion messages, or how mHealth
technology might be leveraged to enhance existing mentoring models. Utilizing knowledge and training gained
through this award in the areas of adolescent substance use, mHealth interventions, and analysis of dyadic and
“big” social media and smartphone data, the goal of the proposed study is to develop a prevention intervention
in the form of a smartphone application (app), as well as training materials for using the app, to enhance
existing mentoring models for highly vulnerable African American male adolescents in urban Baltimore. The
training, professional development, and pilot data gained under this award will allow me to propose an R01 to
conduct a naturalistic study or randomized controlled trial to measure effect sizes in the reduction of substance
use and related health risk behaviors among mentored adolescent males. Support under a K award and the
linked career development experiences will allow me to become an independent investigator focused on a new
area of expertise—substance use prevention with urban American youth using mHealth—and to learn the skills
required for successfully pursing NIH research funding. My long-term career goal is to answer the following
research questions: 1) How can mentoring help improve health outcomes for at-risk adolescents and reduce
health disparities in adulthood? and 2) How can mHealth be used in prevention intervention with this
population? Fully understanding how to set up a systematic research program that intersects the fields of youth
mentoring and effective mHealth intervention has great potential to lead me towards an innovative and
productive independent research career in a new area. My intermediate career goals under this training grant
are to focus work locally with African American adolescent males in Baltimore City, understand how
technology-enhanced mentoring can serve as a universal prevention tool for urban male adoles...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9991834
- **Project number:** 5K01DA042138-04
- **Recipient organization:** JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Michelle R. Kaufman
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $178,871
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-08-15 → 2022-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9991834

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9991834, mHealth Intervention via Mentors: Preventing Substance Use, Sexual Risk and Violence among Inner City Youth through Technology-Enhanced Mentoring (5K01DA042138-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9991834. Licensed CC0.

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