Healthy decision-making by older adolescents and young adults can be fostered by active parental relationships and mutual engagement.
Two Klein Buendel Scientists are co-authors on a paper in the journal JMIR Pediatrics and Parentinglooking at healthy decision-making. Dr. Gill Woodall and Dr. David Buller are members of a research team led by Dr. Brenda Miller from the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE). The paper, whose lead author is Dr. Beth Bourdeau from the University of California, San Francisco, reports findings from a study designed to test the efficacy of the Healthy Relationships and Sexual Decision-making component of a web-based intervention for older adolescents and their parents, called Smart Choices 4 Teens.
The paper describes the details of the final segment of a randomized controlled trial conducted with 411 families with adolescents aged 16-17 years. Adolescents and parents worked through the web-based, self-paced program together. “Participation in the relationships component increased the frequency of parental sexual communication and increased the number of dating rules after accounting for other significant adolescent characteristics.” The paper reports that “Smart Choices 4 Teens demonstrated efficacy in increasing the frequency of sexual communication between parents and adolescents in the long term.”
The Smart Choices 4 Teens research was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (AA020977; Dr. Brenda Miller, PIRE, Principal Investigator). Other authors on this publication include Dr. Hilary Byrnes and Dr. Joel Grube from PIRE; Dr. Beth Bourdeau from the University of California San Francisco; and Dr. Gill Woodall and Dr. David Buller from Klein Buendel. Smart Choices 4 Teens was programmed by the Creative Team at Klein Buendel.
Three Klein Buendel researchers were part of a
team that gave two presentations at the Tenth European Society for Prevention
Research (EUSPR) Conference and Members’ Meeting in Ghent, Belgium in September.
Dr. David Buller, Dr. W. Gill Woodall, and Ms. Julia Berteletti were part of
the Smart Choices 4 Teens research team led by Dr. Brenda Miller from the
Prevention Research Center at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation
(PIRE).
Smart Choices 4 Teens is an online,
interactive, family-based program for parents and older teens designed to
reduce teen alcohol use and risky sexual behaviors. The program features three
sequential components (parent-teen communication, teen alcohol prevention, and
teen romantic relationships) that parents and teens complete separately before
working together through a discussion activity at the end of each component. A randomized
controlled trial with 411 families found significantly better outcomes for
teens in the experimental condition as compared to controls in terms of
decreased alcohol use and decreased sexual risk behaviors.
Oral
Presentation
Dr. Brenda Miller’s presentation focused on the
design of the Smart Choices 4 Teens alcohol prevention component. This module targeted
eleven topics: (1) the decision to drink or not drink, (2) social host laws,
(3) physical effects of alcohol, (4) signs of alcohol poisoning, (5) social
consequences of alcohol, (6) an interactive Blood Alcohol Calculator, (7) myths
about alcohol, (8) creating a safety plan for parties, (9) parental influences,
(10) refusal skills, and (11) defining a drinking problem. The module
incorporated four different activity formats — video narratives, info-gadgets,
interactive activities, and structured discussions. Parents and teens engaged
in the same materials but did so separately, coming together to choose and
discuss hypothetical scenarios that guided the discussion offline. A “nudge”
feature was embedded to allow teens to prompt their parent to finish a module
and move to the end-of-module offline discussion or vice versa. The nudge
feature was used 561 times by 218 users.
Dr. Miller reported that 86% of experimental
families began the intervention and 50% of families completed the teen alcohol prevention
component. The average time needed to complete the alcohol component was 16
minutes. Parents and teens reported learning new lessons and becoming more
comfortable discussing alcohol use together. Barriers to completion included limited
understanding of some content and needing additional instructions.
Poster
Presentation
Dr. David Buller presented a poster, with
analysis led by Dr. W. Gill Woodall, on the effect of teen engagement with Smart Choices 4 Teens. Teens and
parents (411 dyads) completed an online baseline survey prior to being assigned
to either the intervention or control conditions. Follow-up online surveys were
completed 6, 12, and 18 months later. The teen sample was 55% female and 72%
non-Hispanic White. The parent sample was comprised predominately of mothers
(84.7%).
The Smart Choices 4 Teens website tracked
duration of time spent using each of the web-based components. In an analysis
of teens who completed the program in the intervention group (n=142), linear
regressions tested duration of teens’ time in each online component in the
entire program as predictors of teens’ past 30-day alcohol use at the 6-month
follow-up. More time spent by
teens using interactive activities negatively predicted later alcohol use, as
did teens’ time spent viewing videos. Also, teens’ time spent using info-gadget
activities had a negative relationship with alcohol use.
The researchers report that activities with
interactivity, animations, and video content may produce stronger preventive
effects on alcohol use because teens prefer this format over written text in
the info-gadgets, have more involvement with them, and/or find characters
relatable. These reactions may stimulate deep processing of prevention content.
The Smart Choices 4 Teens research was
supported by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism (AA020977; Dr. Brenda Miller, PIRE, Principal Investigator). Other
authors on Dr. Miller’s research team included Dr. Hilary Byrnes, Ms. Veronica
Rogers, and Dr. Joel Grube from PIRE; Dr. Beth Bourdeau from the University of
California San Francisco; and Dr. David Buller, Dr. W. Gill Woodall, and Ms.
Julia Berteletti from Klein Buendel. Smart Choices 4 Teens was programmed by
the Creative Team at Klein Buendel.
Dr. Brenda Miller viewing Smart Choices 4 Teens
Using Panel Vendors to Recruit Research Participants
It has become more common to recruit research study participants through online panel vendors, such as GfK or Qualtrics. In a publication made available recently in PubMed Central from Evaluation and the Health Professions, Dr. Meme Wang-Schweig from the Prevention Research Center at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) and her coauthors (including Dr. David Buller from Klein Buendel), report on the use of panel vendors for recruiting research participants into a randomized controlled trial. The research study was testing an online, family-based alcohol prevention program for parents and older teens, called Smart Choices 4 Teens.
Panel vendors are hired to recruit and match potential research participants to a target population for data collection. Most panel vendors use non-probability sampling which does not involve random selection. People opt in to participate. The vendors advertise for panelists using website banner ads, emails, direct mail, etc. Panelists are paid but may also enjoy contributing their opinions to a research study. Panel vendors can recruit a potential research sample quickly.
Dr. Wang-Schweig’s paper endeavors to answer two methodological questions: (1) how well do panel vendors provide a sample of families to participate in a trial who meet specific inclusion criteria, and (2) how well do panel vendors provide a sample of families to participate in a trial who reflect the make-up of the general population? Using the Smart Choice 4 Teens project’s experience as a real-world example, the authors describe the process of working with panel vendors, the sample’s match to the intended target population, and the additional screening they employed to ensure the quality of the sample. Several recommendations are made for other research teams looking to use panel vendors to recruit study participants.
Smart Choice 4 Teens was supported by a grant from the National
Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (AA020977; Dr. Brenda Miller, PIRE, Principal
Investigator). Dr. Wang-Schweig’s coauthors for this publication included Dr.
Brenda Miller, Dr. Hilary Byrnes, Dr. Beth Bourdeau, and Ms. Veronica Rogers
from PIRE; and Dr. David Buller from Klein Buendel.
The growing incidence of alcohol use among teens is an important public health problem. In a recent publication in Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, Klein Buendel Senior Scientists, Dr. David Buller and Dr. Gill Woodall, joined multiple co-authors to report on the effects of a new alcohol use prevention program for older teenagers. The program is called Smart Choices 4 Teens. The paper reports the results from a randomized controlled trial assessing the impact of this online, interactive, family-based alcohol prevention program with over 400 families on preventing and reducing teen alcohol use.
Smart Choices 4 Teens was designed with three sequential components: general parent-teen communication, teen alcohol use, and teen romantic relationships. The creators adapted two evidence-based programs — Family Matter (1) and Parent Handbook (2) — to appeal to older teens and their parents. Communication skills training was incorporated through videos and interactive activities. The program was designed to have parents and teens go through the online activities separately and then complete a discussion activity together at the end of each component. The Alcohol Component is the focus of this publication.
Use of the program
varied across families and components. Families that used more of the program
reported better outcomes. Data related to dosage of the program and changes in
drinking rates are reported in detail in the paper. Many positive effects were
seen at 6-month and 12-month follow-ups with participating families. For
example, teens in the experimental group reported fewer friends who had been
drunk at six months, and parents in the experimental group reported more communication
about social host laws. At 12 months, parents in the experimental group
reported consuming fewer alcoholic beverages.
Overall, the
findings suggest that Smart Choices 4 Teens was beneficial for families,
especially when parents and teens completed more of the program. The authors
believe that dissemination and implementation strategies that motivate
completion of Smart Choice 4 Teens content, especially the Alcohol Component, can
improve outcomes related to older teens’ alcohol use.
A full description of the methods, results, and conclusions of this study can be found in Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. This research was funded by a grant to the Prevention Research Center at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (AA020977; Brenda Miller, Principal Investigator). Authors in addition to Dr. Miller, Dr. Buller, and Dr. Woodall include first author Dr. Hilary Byrnes, Dr. Joel Grube, Dr. Beth Bourdeau, and Dr. Meme Wang-Schweig from the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. The Smart Choices 4 Teens program was produced by Klein Buendel’s Creative Team.
References
Bauman, K. E., Foshee, V. A., Ennett, S. T., Hicks, K., & Pemberton, M. (2001). Family Matters: A family-directed program designed to prevent adolescent tobacco and alcohol use. Health Promotion Practice, 2, 81-96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/152483990100200112
Turrisi, R., Jaccard, J., Taki, R., Dunnam, H., & Grimes, J. (2001). Examination of the short-term efficacy of a parent intervention to reduce college student drinking tendencies. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 15, 366–372. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0893-164X.15.4.366
