Youth Engagement: An Organization-Level Strategy to Prevent Opioid Misuse among Young Adults

阿片类药物滥用是美国年轻人的一个主要公共卫生问题， 尤其是在农村地区。至关重要的是，预防阿片类药物滥用的努力， 人们往往不能有效地让他们参与进来。预防组织将受益于一个有效的青年 参与战略，将青年人的声音纳入预防方案和政策的规划。 此外，青年期是积极社会发展的形成期;但不幸的是，许多青年人 人们在社区中感到孤立，觉得自己无关紧要，缺乏有意义的机会， 参与社会，与亲社会机构建立积极联系。预防机构缺乏 以证据为基础的战略，以调动年轻人可以带来的大量资源， 预防工作，增加其对年轻人的意义和相关性;与此同时， 可能有滥用阿片类药物的风险，部分原因是孤立和缺乏有意义的参与机会。 他们的社区。让年轻人参与针对毒品的预防组织 使用可以通过针对两种途径来防止阿片类药物滥用：（1）环境途径， 成年人通过改善预防工作影响社区系统和环境，以及（2）个人 途径支持心理社会保护因素和减少风险的年轻人从事 预防工作。与NIDA的HEAL倡议和2016-2020战略计划目标2.2相一致， 该提案旨在阐明青年参与的环境和个人途径， 防止阿片类药物滥用。这个指导职业发展奖的研究部分将发展和 测试组织一级的预防战略，以有效地纳入有意义的青年参与 将机会纳入多组成部分的预防工作。该项目将确定哪些社区为基础的 预防组织，以及青年人的哪个子集，将最受益于青年参与， 预防阿片类药物滥用战略（目标1）;制定组织一级的青年参与预防 战略，并与一个社区组织一起执行，以检验可行性和可接受性（目标2）; 并评估青年参与作为组织一级战略的初步有效性， 在一项小型试点随机对照试验中预防阿片类药物滥用（目标3）。其中的培训部分 该奖项将使我能够在（1）以社区为基础的系统和物质使用环境中发展关键技能 针对弱势青年的预防;（2）农村青年滥用阿片类药物;（3） （4）随机临床试验研究。以一种引导的方式， 优秀的导师团队，这K 01将充分准备我成为一个独立的调查员的技能 开展研究，制定急需的新战略，以减轻阿片类药物滥用的社会问题 在年轻人中。

Abstrac t Opioid misuse is a major public health issue among young adults in the United States and is an especially acute problem in rural communities. Critically, prevention efforts for opioid misuse that serve young people often do not effectively involve them. Prevention organizations would benefit from an effective youth engagement strategy to incorporate the voices of young people in planning prevention programs and policy. Further, young adulthood is a formative time for positive social development; but unfortunately, many young people feel isolated within communities, feel that they do not matter, and lack meaningful opportunities to engage with society and form positive connections with prosocial institutions. Prevention organizations lack evidence-based strategy to marshal the considerable resources that young adults can bring to strengthening prevention efforts by increasing their meaning and relevance for young adults; at the same time, young adults may be at risk for opioid misuse in part due to isolation and lack of meaningful opportunities for engagement in their communities. Engaging young people to contribute to the prevention organizations targeting substance use may prevent opioid misuse by targeting two pathways: (1) an environmental pathway whereby young adults affect community systems and settings through improving prevention efforts and (2) an individual pathway bolstering psychosocial protective factors and reducing risks for the young adults engaged in prevention efforts. Aligned with NIDA's HEAL initiative and the 2016-2020 strategic plan Objective 2.2, this K01 proposal seeks to elucidate the environmental and individual pathways through which youth engagement can prevent opioid misuse. The research component of this mentored career development award will develop and test an organization-level prevention strategy for effectively integrating meaningful youth engagement opportunities into multi-component prevention efforts. The project will identify which community-based prevention organizations, and which subset of young adults, would most benefit from youth engagement as a strategy for preventing opioid misuse (Aim 1); develop an organization-level youth engagement prevention strategy and implement it with one community-based organization to test feasibility and acceptability (Aim 2); and evaluate the preliminary effectiveness of youth engagement as an organization-level strategy for preventing opioid misuse in a small pilot randomized controlled trial (Aim 3). The training component of this award will allow me to develop critical skills in (1) community-based systems and settings for substance use prevention targeting vulnerable young adults; (2) opioid misuse among young adults in rural settings; (3) prevention intervention development; and (4) randomized clinical trials research. With guidance from an outstanding mentor team, this K01 will fully prepare me to become an independent investigator with the skills to carry out research yielding much-needed new strategies to mitigate the societal issue of opioid misuse among young adults.