Individual and Family Motivational Interviews for Substance Using Truant Teens

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Substance Use
• Interventions: Behavioral: Family Check-up/ Individual MI; Behavioral: Individual and family psychoeducation

• Registration Number: NCT01170026
• Lead Sponsor: Brown University

Brief Summary

This application will provide a test of one potential model for adding substance use assessment and brief intervention into a truancy court program. The primary goal of this study is to determine whether a motivational intervention will reduce substance use among adolescents referred to truancy court for school attendance problems. In this treatment development application, an open trial with 20 families referred by truancy court will first be conducted. This trial will be used to adapt an existing motivational intervention to include material relevant to school attendance and performance. Then 100 families participating in the Rhode Island Truancy Court Program with adolescents between the ages of 13-16 years who report using substances will be randomly assigned to receive the experimental intervention plus standard truancy court procedures or psychoeducation plus standard truancy court procedures. The 2-session intervention protocol consists of an individual motivational interview plus the Family Check-Up (Dishion \& Kavanagh, 2003), a family based motivational interview. The experimental protocol provides a thorough assessment of both individual and family strengths and weaknesses with respect to substance use prevention and school attendance/performance. Follow-up interviews will be conducted at 3 and 6 months.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2010-07-22
• Study First Submitted QC: 2010-07-26
• Study First Posted: 2010-07-27
• Study Start: 2010-08
• Primary Completion: 2013-01
• Study Completion: 2013-07
• Results First Submitted: 2023-03-04
• Status Verified: 2024-11
• Results First Submitted QC: 2024-11-28
• Last Update Submitted: 2024-11-28
• Results First Posted: 2025-01-15
• Last Update Posted: 2025-01-15

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 69

Inclusion Criteria

1. between the ages of 13-16 at the start of the project and living at home with at least one parent/guardian,
2. t- score of 70 or above on one of the diagnostic-oriented scales (internalizing or externalizing problems) on the Child Behavior Checklist (i.e. reach the clinical cut-off),
3. the child must report 6 or more incidences of substance use in the last 90 days,
4. parental consent and child assent are obtained.

Exclusion Criteria

1. adolescent meets diagnostic criteria for substance dependence suggesting need for more intensive services,
2. the family is not able to speak and understand English or Spanish well enough to complete study procedures.

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Family Check-up/Individual MI	Family Check-up/ Individual MI	Two session motivational intervention to improve parent monitoring and communication with respect to adolescent risk behavior especially substance use plus 2 session Individual Motivational Intervention for the adolescent
Psychoeducation	Individual and family psychoeducation	Two sessions of psychoeducation for parents regarding adolescent risk behaviors especially substance use

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Marijuana Use Days in Past 90 Days	3 Month Follow-Up and 6 month follow-up	Number of Days in which a Participant Responded "Yes" to Marijuana use in the Past 90 Days" range = 0 to 90; higher scores indicate more marijuana use
Alcohol Use Days in Past 90 Days	3 and 6 Month Follow-Up	If a Participant Responded "Yes" to Alcohol use in the Past 90 Days" ; yes /no

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Brown University; 🇺🇸 Providence, Rhode Island, United States