A Randomized Trial of Letting Go and Staying Connected, an Interactive Parenting Intervention to Reduce Risky Behaviors Among Students

 描述（由申请人提供）：在从家庭到大学的过渡期间，学生表现出药物使用，高风险艾滋病毒/性风险行为以及相关危害的急剧增加。酒精和大麻的使用，以及非医疗处方兴奋剂和止痛药的使用，在大学生中的流行率很高，他们占我们年轻成年人口的40%。父母仍然对年轻的成年学生有影响力，但在家庭领域的这一发展阶段的风险和保护机制还没有得到很好的理解。我们的总体目标是减少死亡，伤害，性侵犯和学业失败的发生率与物质使用和相关的危险行为在大学生中。我们的直接目标是测试父母的预防性干预措施的有效性，因为他们的学生过渡到大学。这个项目的基本原理是一本互动式家长手册，它将为大学管理者提供一种新的、低成本的工具，它将（a）显著减少危险行为、伤害、性侵犯和死亡;（B）提高一年级学生的学业成功率。这本手册《放手和保持联系》是互动的，有理论指导，有发展目标。它将在父母经常寻求指导和支持的过渡时期向他们提供基于证据的育儿技能。一项试点研究的初步结果表明，父母参与干预的学生在第一学期使用药物和遭受伤害的可能性明显低于对照学生。 我们将随机将家长-学生配对（每个队列450对;两个队列）分配到三组中的一组：手册，手册Plus（一种创新的“助推器”条件，其中一些手册家长收到量身定制的短信）和控制。所有参与者将在大学第一年之前的夏季完成基线调查。手册家长然后收到邮寄手册;手册加家长也收到助推器信息在秋季学期。后续调查将每学期进行一次，为期两年。 我们的目的是：1）测试手册的有效性：我们期望父母接受手册的学生比对照学生更少使用物质和更少的高风险性行为; 2）评估中介和调节因素：我们的假设模型表明，父母行为将中介手册使用和学生成绩之间的关联;以及3）识别家长-学生交流的特定属性（例如，内容;语气;时机），预测风险行为。该项目将使我们能够测试特定方面的养育行为的保护作用，结果将扩展我们有限的知识，在家庭领域的可塑性风险和保护因素，为这个发展时期。此外，该项目将在华盛顿进行，该州最近已将购买、持有和使用大麻合法化，从而及时提供有关父母沟通效果的信息，特别是有关大麻的信息。总之，本课题具有现实意义、科学意义和政策意义。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): During the transition from home to college, students exhibit a dramatic increase in substance use, high- risk HIV/sex-risk behaviors, and associated harms. Prevalence of alcohol and marijuana use, and of non- medical prescription stimulant and painkiller use, is high among college students, who represent 40% of our young adult population. Parents remain influential with young adult students, but the mechanisms of risk and protection at this developmental stage in the family domain are not well understood. Our overarching goal is to reduce the incidence of death, injury, sexual assault, and academic failure related to substance use and related risk behaviors among college students. Our immediate objective is to test the efficacy of a preventive intervention for parents as their students transition to college. The rationale for this project, an interactive parent handbook, is that it wll provide college administrators with a new, low-cost tool that will (a) significantly reduce risk behaviors, injuries, sexual assault, and deaths; and (b) increase academic success among first- year students. The handbook, Letting Go and Staying Connected, is interactive, theoretically guided, and developmentally targeted. It will provide parents with evidence-based parenting skills during a transitional period in which they often seek guidance and support. Preliminary results from a pilot study indicate that students whose parents participated in the intervention were significantly less likely to use substances and experience harms during their first semester than were control students. We will randomly assign parent-student dyads (450 dyads per cohort; two cohorts) to one of three groups: Handbook, Handbook Plus (an innovative "booster" condition in which some Handbook parents receive tailored text messages), and Control. All participants will complete a baseline survey during summer before the first year of college. Handbook parents then receive the mailed handbook; Handbook Plus parents also receive booster messages in fall semester. Follow-up surveys will occur once a semester for two years. Our aims are 1) to test the efficacy of the Handbook: we expect that students of parents receiving the handbook will engage in less substance use and fewer high-risk sex behaviors than control students; 2) to evaluate mediating and moderating factors: our hypothesized model specifies that parent behaviors will mediate associations between Handbook use and student outcomes; and 3) to identify specific attributes of parent-student communication (e.g., content; tone; timing) that predict risk behaviors. The project will allow us to test protective effects of specific aspects of parenting behaviors, and results will extend our limited knowledge about malleable risk and protective factors in the family domain for this developmental period. Additionally, the project will take place in Washington, a state where the purchase, possession, and use of marijuana have recently been legalized, providing timely information about effects of parent communication specifically about marijuana. In sum the project has practical, scientific, and policy significance.