Parents as Interventionists for Moderate Drug Abusing Adolescents

作为中心主题的一部分，这项建议旨在将科学发现转化为指导父母资源和工具的开发，其目标是已经开始使用毒品的青少年的父母。拟议中的研究将测试一种新的、创新的简短干预方法。该项目将以家庭为基础，而不是在临床环境中由咨询师实施。与中心的转化策略一致，本研究是第一阶段到第二阶段的研究。第一阶段的活动将包括手工发展、家长培训发展和小型可行性研究；第二阶段涉及正式功效

This proposal, as part of the Center theme to translate scientific findings to guide the development of resources and tools for parents, is aimed at parents with a teenager who is already starting to use drugs. The proposed research will test a new, innovative version of a brief intervention. This program will be home based rather than implemented by a counselor in a clinical setting. Consistent with the Center translational strategy, this proposed study is stage I to stage II research. The stage I activities will involve manual development, parent training development, and a small feasibility study; Stage II involves a formal efficacy randomized controlled trial. Subsequent to the efficacy trial, additional translational work by the Center's Communications Unit (Parent Advisory Board and the Partnership for a Drug Free America) will promote the product's transportability into the community. The study's potential to develop a user-friendly and scientifically sound parent intervention program benefits from being part ofthe proposed Center. The study's specific aims are the following: Aim 1. Design a new, parent-led and home based brief intervention to address mild-to-moderate drug abuse in the teenage child (age range 12-15). Aim 2. Evaluate the efficacy of the parent intervenfion using a random controlled trial. Two samples, 110 families each, will participate in the randomized controlled trial. Families will be randomly assigned to either an intervention or control conditions. Data to quantify intervention effects will be obtained by interviewing adolescents and target parent at multiple time points (baseline and 1-, 3-, 6- and 12-months post baseline). We hypothesize that the home based intervention will be superior to a control condition. Aim 3. To examine hypothesized mediating mechanisms that contribute to post-intervention drug use behaviors in the adolescent. Response to the intervention by the adolescent will be mediated by motivation, cognitions, problem solving, peer drug use, parenting skills and parent self-efficacy.