A Web-Based Intervention to Prevent Drug Abuse among Adolescent Girls

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究资助申请中的计划研究解决了美国青春期女孩中日益增长和不可接受的高药物使用率的问题。我们建议开发和测试一个互动的、基于网络的项目，以防止女孩滥用药物并延缓她们开始吸毒。研究参与者将从Facebook上招募13岁和14岁的女孩。Facebook是美国最大、最受欢迎的社交网站，13岁和14岁的女孩中有44%注册了Facebook。在社会认知理论和弹性框架的基础上，该预防计划将使女孩具备认知行为技能，以解决青少年女孩中与吸毒有关的同伴和社会影响、自尊、抑郁和身体形象问题。所有的女孩都可以在网上进行测量。干预组的女孩将在线参加该计划的初始课程和年度强化课程。这些针对特定性别的内容将以课程菜单的形式出现在一个网站上，为女孩们提供时事、娱乐新闻、星座运势、励志名言、健康和美容秘诀，以及其他与年龄和性别相关的内容。通过虚拟角色扮演模拟，课程将采用情感敏感的化身和分支学习环境，女孩们可以通过这些学习环境获得、尝试、接受反馈，并掌握新的认知行为技能。互动式和针对性别的预防内容将使方案具有主题一致性，并增强其对少女的吸引力和价值。研究设计为随机临床试验。从美国各地招募的13岁和14岁的女孩将在同意参与研究并获得父母许可后被录取。在网上，所有女孩都将完成测试前的测试；干预组的女孩将与预防项目互动，所有女孩都将完成测试后测量和1年、2年和3年的随访测量。干预组的女孩在完成1年和2年的随访后将额外接受加强治疗。在随访测量中，数据分析将检查干预组和控制组之间过去30天的药物使用率和开始使用药物的比率。我们还将研究干预对与药物使用风险和保护因素相关的中介变量的影响。并且，我们将评估中介变量的变化在多大程度上解释两组之间药物使用的差异。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The planned study in this research grant application addresses the problem of growing and unacceptably high rates of drug use among adolescent girls in the United States. We propose to develop and test an interactive, web-based program to prevent drug abuse and delay the onset of drug use among girls. Study participants will be 13- and 14-year-old girls recruited from Facebook. Facebook is the largest and most popular social networking site in the United States, with an enrollment of 44 percent of all 13- and 14-year-old girls. Grounded in social cognitive theory and within a resiliency framework, the prevention program will equip girls with cognitive-behavioral skills to address peer and social influences, self-esteem, depression, and body- image issues associated with drug use among adolescent girls. All girls will access measures online. Girls in the intervention arm will access the program's initial sessions and annual booster sessions online. The gender- specific content will be housed as a menu of sessions embedded on a website offering girls access to current events, entertainment news, horoscopes, inspirational quotes, health and beauty tips, and other age- and gender-relevant features. Through virtual role-play simulations, the sessions will employ emotionally responsive avatars and a branched learning environment through which girls can acquire, try out, receive feedback on, and master new cognitive-behavioral skills. Interactive and gender-specific prevention content will give the program thematic coherence and enhance its attraction and value to adolescent girls. The study design is a randomized clinical trial. Recruited from across the United States, 13- and 14-year- old girls will be enrolled when they assent to study participation and obtain parental permission. Online, all girls will complete pretest measures; intervention-arm girls will interact with the prevention program, and all girls will complete posttest measures and 1-, 2-, and 3-year follow-up measures. Intervention-arm girls will additionally receive booster sessions after they complete 1- and 2-year follow-ups. Across follow-up measurement occasions, data analyses will examine rates of past 30-day drug use and drug use initiation between the intervention and control arms. We will also examine intervention effects on mediator variables associated with drug use risk and protective factors. And, we will assess the extent to which changes in mediator variables explain differences in drug use between arms.