Adventure: Teacher Delivered Personality-targeted Interventions for Substance Misuse (Adventure)

June 24, 2011 updated by: King's College London

Cognitive Behavioral Interventions That Target Personality Risk for Substance Abuse and Mental Illness: Delivery by Educational Professionals

Several personality factors have been shown to be associated with risk for alcohol and substance misuse, and differentiate substance abusers based on clinical profile, treatment response and susceptibility to other forms of mental illness. Personality-targeted interventions have been found to have significant preventative effects on onset and growth of drinking, binge-drinking and drinking problems in adolescents attending mainstream schools (Conrod, Castellanos & Mackie, 2008). The interventions concurrently reduced personality-specific emotional and behavioural problems (Castellanos & Conrod, 2006), and prevented the onset and escalation of drug-use over a two-year period (Conrod, Castellanos-Ryan & Strang, 2010). This cluster randomised controlled trial aims to examine whether these results can be replicated when interventions are delivered by trained educational professionals. In addition, the trial will evaluate the broader impact of the programme on cigarette smoking, school attendance, academic achievement and school-wide behaviours.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The Adventure study aims to examine whether educational professionals such as teachers, mentors or individuals in a pastoral role, who are trained in carrying out personality-targeted interventions will be effective in reducing problem behaviours in a group of adolescents.

20 schools in London, U.K. were recruited for the trial, and over 2000 adolescents (mean age 13.7 years) consented to participate in the survey and intervention phases of the trial. Schools were randomly assigned to control or intervention condition, and students in intervention schools who met the criteria for any of the 4 personality risk subscales of the Substance Use Risk Profile Scale (Negative Thinking, Anxiety Sensitivity, Sensation Seeking and Impulsivity) were invited to participate in a personality-targeted intervention by trained members of staff from their schools. All participants were invited to complete follow-up surveys at 6-month intervals for 2 years. The remaining 55% of low risk students in the grad were also followed to examine population-level effects of the intervention as well.

The main outcome measures of this RCT are alcohol and illicit drug outcomes. Secondary measures include mental health symptoms, risky behaviour, school attainment and attendance, and school-wide behaviours.

It is hypothesised that teacher-delivered personality-targeted interventions will have similar preventative effects on alcohol and drug use as reported by Conrod et al (2008, 2010), in addition to the personality-specific intervention effects reported by Castellanos & Conrod (2006). In addition, broader effects of the intervention on academic achievement and school-wide behaviour will be examined in this trial, both at the individual level and at the population-level.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

3190

Phase

  • Phase 2
  • Phase 3

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

  • United Kingdom
      • London, United Kingdom
        • Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London

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 16 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Secondary school student

Exclusion Criteria:

  • None

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: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Factorial Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: learning to manage your negative thinking
cognitive behavioural intervention targeting pessimistic and negative thinking in hopeless youth
Behavioral: Personality-targeted interventions
Motivational and cognitive behavioural interventions targeting four personality profiles. 2 90 minute group sessions with personality-matched peers facilitated by a trained teacher and co-facilitator
Other Names:
  • Preventure, but now delivered by teachers
Experimental: learning to cope with your impulsivity
Cognitive-behavioural intervention targeting impulsive personality
Behavioral: Personality-targeted interventions
Motivational and cognitive behavioural interventions targeting four personality profiles. 2 90 minute group sessions with personality-matched peers facilitated by a trained teacher and co-facilitator
Other Names:
  • Preventure, but now delivered by teachers
Experimental: learning to cope with your sensation seeking
cognitive behavioural intervention designed to help sensation seeking youth manage their need for stimulation and excitement.
Behavioral: Personality-targeted interventions
Motivational and cognitive behavioural interventions targeting four personality profiles. 2 90 minute group sessions with personality-matched peers facilitated by a trained teacher and co-facilitator
Other Names:
  • Preventure, but now delivered by teachers
Experimental: learning to cope with your anxiety sensitivity
cognitive behavioural intervention teaching anxiety sensitive youth to manager their sensitivity to threat and anxiety.
Behavioral: Personality-targeted interventions
Motivational and cognitive behavioural interventions targeting four personality profiles. 2 90 minute group sessions with personality-matched peers facilitated by a trained teacher and co-facilitator
Other Names:
  • Preventure, but now delivered by teachers

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Binge drinking frequency
Time Frame: 2 years
Frequency in the past 6 months that subject reported drinking 5 or more alcoholic beverages (4 or more for girls) on one drinking occasion.
2 years
Drinking frequency
Time Frame: 2 years
Past six months frequency of drinking
2 years
drinking quantity
Time Frame: 2 years
Average number of alcoholic beverages consumed on a typical drinking occasion in the past six months
2 years
Drinking problems
Time Frame: 2 years
number of drinking problems reported on an abbreviated version of the Rutger's Alcohol Problem Index.
2 years
illicit drug use events
Time Frame: 2 years
Time to onset of illicit drug use
2 years

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Emotional and behavioural problems, targeted and school-wide effects
Time Frame: 2 years
Psychiatric symptoms (depression, panic anxiety, antisocial behaviours), coping skills, motives for drinking, school attendance and attainment, in-class behaviours assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Brief Symptom Inventory.
2 years

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

King's College London

Collaborators

Action on Addiction

Investigators

  • Study Chair: Patricia J Conrod, PhD, King's College London

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

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

May 1, 2007

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2010

Study Completion (Actual)

May 1, 2010

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 17, 2008

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 20, 2008

First Posted (Estimate)

October 21, 2008

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

June 27, 2011

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 24, 2011

Last Verified

December 1, 2010

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Adventure

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.

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