Behavioral Economics Intervention to Increase Treatment Seeking in the National Guard

Not Applicable

• Conditions: Treatment Refusal
• Interventions: Behavioral: BEAST; Behavioral: Descriptive Feedback

• Registration Number: NCT04098588
• Lead Sponsor: University of Southern Mississippi

Brief Summary

The study is a randomized controlled trial of a single-session behavioral economics (research combining the areas of economics, social psychology, and cognitive psychology) intervention (i.e., BEAST) is a"warrior-culture" consistent (i.e., focusing on positive soldier traits, solving practical problems), highly scalable, and extremely brief (10-minute) intervention to encourage treatment seeking among MS National Guard problems for various life stressors. Participants will be 112 National Guard members. It is hypothesized that BEAST will lead to more self-reported motivation to seek treatment and more actual treatment seeking behavior.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2019-09-18
• Study First Submitted QC: 2019-09-18
• Study First Posted: 2019-09-23
• Study Start: 2019-12-15
• Status Verified: 2022-10
• Last Update Submitted: 2022-11-03
• Last Update Posted: 2022-11-04
• Primary Completion: 2023-03-29
• Study Completion: 2023-03-29

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: ENROLLING_BY_INVITATION
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 112

Inclusion Criteria

• National Guard active
• > 17 ACSS-FAD

Exclusion Criteria

• those determined by military or study personnel to be actively psychotic, manic, or who are imminently suicidal and in need of emergency services.

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
BEAST	BEAST	There are 3 parts to BEAST. Part 1 involves the Behavioral Nudge technique using previously collected injunctive and descriptive norms from a National Guard sample. Soldiers will be given a customized feedback form that shows norms relevant to the target behavior they selected. The soldier will be given a chance to ask any follow-up questions. Part 2 of the intervention focuses on the principle of targeting others, considering how a change would impact those closest to them. Part 3 will utilize the Reciprocal Concessions procedure combined with the Reducing Barriers technique.
Descriptive Feedback	Descriptive Feedback	This condition will involve a presentation of descriptive data based on the soldiers' tests scores and an opportunity to ask any follow-up questions. This process is a component of some behavioral change interventions (e.g., motivational interviewing); therefore this should be a more useful control condition (mirroring parts 1 and 2 of the active condition) versus a more passive or waitlist control condition. Participants in the control condition will also be given standard referral information to the USM Psychology Clinic (mirroring part 3 of the active condition).

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Psychosocial Treatments Interview-Revised	1 month post intervention	Measure changes in treatment seeking behavior
University of Rhode Island Change Assessment	1 month post intervention	Measure motivation to change the target behavior

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Psychosocial Treatments Interview-Revised	3 month post intervention	Measure changes in treatment seeking behavior
University of Rhode Island Change Assessment	3 month post intervention	Measure motivation to change the target behavior

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

University of Southern Mississippi; 🇺🇸 Hattiesburg, Mississippi, United States