Online Parent-Based College Alcohol and other Drug Use Prevention

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application proposes development and testing of an online parent-based substance use prevention education resource for parents of youth preparing to make the transition to college, MyStudentBody(MSB)-Parent. MSB-Parent will be offered by colleges and universities to parents of incoming students to help them to facilitate a positive transition for their child. This project is timely given the recent focus on parent involvement in young adult lives. Current NIAAA and NIDA initiatives support research for examining the role of parents as agents for influencing college alcohol and other drug use. Research demonstrates that parents continue to influence their young adult children, particularly across the transition to college when substance use and other risk behaviors markedly increase. Studies also demonstrate that the first six- to eight-weeks following the transition have a significant influence on longer term student adjustment and school retention rates. MSB Parent will draw on extant theoretical and empirical work to include education about the developmental needs of college-bound teens, alcohol and other drugs, and strategies to help parents communicate with their teen about college culture, including substance use and associated risks. MSB-Parent will harness Web technologies to create an innovative approach to parent-based prevention that incorporates audio and streaming video, engaging graphics, animation, interactive polls, quizzes, and tools, and established school- specific and national resources. A randomized controlled study will be conducted with parents and their college-bound youth to determine efficacy of the program for influencing parent self- efficacy, parent-youth communication, and student alcohol and other drug use tendencies and adjustment across the transition to college. MSB-Parent will complement a comprehensive suite of evidence-based online prevention programs for college students developed with support from NIH and currently being implemented in approximately 100 schools nationwide.