Using Technology to Reduce Youth Substance Use (TEXT2)

September 1, 2026 updated by: University of California, San Francisco

The research project will focus on conducting a trial of whether a tailored SMS text-messaging intervention is efficacious in improving justice-involved youths' substance use or dual diagnosis treatment attendance and engagement.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The study will demonstrate how delivery of motivational/coaching messages to justice-involved youth and their caregivers will lead to greater youth substance use treatment attendance and engagement. The study will start with identifying the feasibility and acceptability of the SMS text-messaging intervention with community-supervised justice-involved youth. Then, the study will determine whether the tailored dyadic (youth and caregiver) "SMS text-messaging plus" intervention (appointment reminder texts plus motivational message texts) improves youth substance use or dual diagnosis treatment attendance and engagement relative to the "SMS text messaging" comparison (only appointment reminder texts). Finally, the study will characterize patterns of key justice and behavioral health system-level factors that promote or hinder eventual adoption and sustainability of mHealth technology as a tool to improve treatment attendance for justice-involved youth.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

50

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • California
      • San Francisco, California, United States, 94131
        • UCSF Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

13 years to 18 years (Child, Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • English-speaking youth with willing adult caregiver
  • Ages 13-18
  • Justice-involved while living in the community
  • Own a mobile phone or tablet
  • Are willing to send and receive text messages
  • Are referred to community-based substance use and/or mental health treatment

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: SMS Text Messaging Plus

SMS text messaging intervention for a period of 90 days to encourage attendance at community-based substance use or dual diagnosis treatment appointments through treatment appointment reminders plus motivational messages

SMS text messaging intervention for a period of 90 days to encourage attendance at community-based substance use or dual diagnosis treatment appointments through treatment appointment reminders plus motivational messages

Active Comparator: SMS Text Messaging

SMS text messaging intervention for a period of 90 days that included only treatment appointment reminders

SMS text messaging intervention for a period of 90 days that included only treatment appointment reminders

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Treatment Attendance
Time Frame: 90 days post baseline

Youth's percentage of treatment sessions attended as separately self-reported by youth and caregivers.

90 days post baseline

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Alcohol Use
Time Frame: 90 days post baseline

The Adolescent Risk Behavior Assessment (ARBA) is used to assess quantity and frequency of previous (lifetime and past 90 days) alcohol use. These data represent the number of youth who endorsed any alcohol use in the past 90 days

90 days post baseline
Drug Use
Time Frame: 90 days post baseline

The Adolescent Risk Behavior Assessment (ARBA) is used to assess quantity and frequency of previous (lifetime and past 90 days) cannabis and other drug use. These data represent the number of youth who endorsed any drug use in the past 90 days

90 days post baseline
Tobacco Use
Time Frame: 90 days post baseline

The Adolescent Risk Behavior Assessment (ARBA) is used to assess quantity and frequency of previous (lifetime and past 90 days) cannabis and other drug use. These data represent the number of youth who endorsed any tobacco use in the past 90 days

90 days post baseline
In Mental Health Treatment at 90 Day Follow up
Time Frame: 90 days post baseline

Treatment Status and Attendance Youth survey is used to gather detailed information about type of treatment the youth is attending.

90 days post baseline
In Substance Use Treatment at 90 Day Follow up
Time Frame: 90 days post baseline

Treatment Status and Attendance Youth survey is used to gather detailed information about type of treatment the youth is attending.

90 days post baseline
In Dual Diagnosis (Mental Health and Substance Use) Treatment at 90 Day Follow up
Time Frame: 90 days post baseline

Treatment Status and Attendance Youth survey is used to gather detailed information about type of treatment the youth is attending.

90 days post baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Collaborators

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Marina Tolou-Shams, PhD, University of California, San Francisco

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

May 1, 2020

Primary Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2025

Study Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 7, 2020

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 22, 2020

First Posted (Actual)

June 25, 2020

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

September 24, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 1, 2026

Last Verified

September 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 1K24DA046569-01A1 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.