Randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of a brief, communication-based, substance use preventive intervention for parents of adolescents: Protocol for the SUPPER Project (Substance Use Prevention Promoted by Eating family meals Regularly)

• Published in: PloS one 2022-02, Vol.17 (2), p.e0263016-e0263016
• Main Authors: Skeer, Margie R, Sabelli, Rachael A, Rancaño, Katherine M, Lee-Bravatti, Michelle, Ryan, Emma C, Eliasziw, Misha, Spirito, Anthony
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Alcohol; Analysis; Biology and Life Sciences; Case-Control Studies; Child development; Children; Children & youth; Clinical trials; Communication; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Crisis Intervention; Dosage; Drug abuse; Drug use; Drugs and youth; Funding; Health Promotion - methods; Health risks; Humans; Intervention; Marijuana; Meals; Medicine; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mental health; Nutrition; Pandemics; Parent and child; Parent-Child Relations; Parents; Parents & parenting; Parents - psychology; Pediatric Obesity - prevention & control; Pediatric Obesity - psychology; People and Places; Physical activity; Prevention; Public health; Randomization; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic - statistics & numerical data; Research and Analysis Methods; Risk analysis; Risk factors; Secondary school students; Secondary schools; Social Sciences; Study Protocol; Substance use; Substance-Related Disorders - prevention & control; Substance-Related Disorders - psychology; Teenagers; Verbal communication
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263016

Substance use among adolescents in the U.S. is associated with adverse physical and mental health outcomes in the long-term. Universal youth-focused substance use prevention programs have demonstrated effectiveness but are often not sustainable due to the significant amount of time, effort, and resources required. We describe a trial protocol for a brief, low-participant-burden intervention to improve substance use-specific parent-child communication through the promotion of family meals and increased parental engagement. This study is a parallel-group randomized controlled trial designed to assess the efficacy of a 13-week intervention. A total of 500 dyads of parents and their 5th-7th grade children are recruited from across Massachusetts. Dyads are randomized to the intervention or attention-control condition using block urn randomization, based on child grade, gender, and school. Parents/guardians in the substance use preventive intervention arm receive a short handbook, attend two meetings with an interventionist, and receive two SMS messages per week. Parents/guardians in the control arm receive the same dose but with content focused on nutrition, physical activity, and weight stigma. Participant dyads submit videos of family meals, audio recordings of prompted conversations, and quantitative surveys over an 18-month period (baseline, 3, 6, 12, 18 months post-intervention). The primary outcomes measure the quantity and quality of parent-child substance use conversations and proximal child indicators (i.e., substance use attitudes and expectancies, affiliation with substance-using peers, and intentions and willingness to use substances). The secondary outcome is child substance use initiation. This is a novel, brief, communication-focused intervention for parents/guardians that was designed to reduce participant burden. The intervention has the potential to improve parent-child engagement and communication and conversations about substance use specifically and decrease child substance use risk factors and substance use initiation. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03925220. Registered on 24 April 2019.