Family Check-Up for Adolescents and Siblings

July 28, 2014 updated by: Anthony Spirito, Brown University

Effects of the Family Check-Up on Adolescents With Alcohol-Related Events and Their Siblings

A two group randomized design will be used to test the primary hypothesis that the experimental intervention will reduce alcohol consumption and alcohol-related negative consequences significantly more than a comparison family-based psychoeducation condition in both an identified alcohol-using adolescent (12- 18 years old) and his/her teenage sibling (the sibling can be 3 years older or younger than teen with the sibling's age between 12-21 years old). The experimental condition consists of the Family Check-up, while the comparison condition is a less intense parenting psychoeducation program. Time points will include follow-ups at 3, 6, and 12 months.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

A total of 175 adolescents, 12 to 18 years old, will be drawn from multiple sites to compare the experimental condition, The Family Check Up(FCU; Dishion & Kavanagh, 2003) to a family-based psychoeducational program.

The Family Check-Up is a selective intervention program that focuses on parents. Its goal is to provide individualized feedback to motivate parents to make improvements in their parenting practices. A unique strength of the FCU is that feedback is individualized and tailored to specific parenting skills as they typically pertain to an identified adolescent in the family. We propose to evaluate the efficacy of the FCU when applied to both an adolescent identified patient (IP) and a sibling close in age. Our rationale for including a sibling close in age derives from a strong empirical base which has shown that: 1) sibling resemblance for alcohol use is high and environmental factors shared by siblings account for substantial portions of variance in adolescent alcohol use; and 2) specific interactional dynamics of the sibling relationship (collusion) are related to teen alcohol use. Dr. Dishion has found that in high-risk families, sibling collusion accounts for variance in problem behavior after controlling for involvement with deviant peers. This connection between ineffective parenting strategies and sibling relationship dynamics in combination creates increased risk for alcohol use by siblings close in age. This notion serves as a foundation to examine the efficacy of a sibling-enhanced FCU intervention with respect to: 1) improvement in parental communication and monitoring; 2) reduction of sibling interactive behaviors that are associated with alcohol use; and 3) reduction of alcohol use in IP adolescents as well as siblings who are currently using alcohol. We will test specified mediators of FCU efficacy in reducing levels of alcohol use at both the parenting level and at the level of sibling dynamics. In order to determine whether other types of family-based interventions might be just as helpful as the more intensive FCU, efficacy of the sibling-enhanced FCU will be compared to a parenting psychoeducational program.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

104

Phase

  • Phase 1

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 States
    • Rhode Island
      • Providence, Rhode Island, United States, 02906
        • Brown University

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

12 years to 18 years (Child, Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Participants will be 12 to 18 years old, inclusive, living at home with at least one parent or guardian.
  • Participants will have a teenage sibling within 3 years of age of the identified adolescent patient. Siblings can be either biological or unrelated siblings in blended families, as long as they live in the same home as the parents targeted in the intervention conditions. The adolescent must have experienced a recent (within 1 month) alcohol-related event (ED admission, school disciplinary action, grounding by parents, legal action). The adolescent must also screen in by reaching the clinical cutoff score on the Adolescent Drinking Index.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Alcohol positive adolescents with substance dependence diagnosis requiring a higher level of care; 18 year olds living on their own.

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: 1 - Family Check Up
Brief family intervention that employs Motivational Interviewing.
Behavioral: Family Check Up
The Family Check-Up provides a thorough assessment of individual family strengths and weaknesses and utilizes principles of motivational interviewing to encourage families to change.
Active Comparator: 2 - Psychoeducation
Behavioral: Psychoeducation
Psychoeducation regarding teen alcohol and drug use in general, along with ways parents can help their children stay safe from using alcohol or drugs.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Teen and sibling alcohol use
Time Frame: 3 months
drinking frequency (days per month), quantity (drinks per occasion), frequency of high-volume drinking (5 or more drinks per occasion)
3 months
Teen and sibling alcohol use
Time Frame: 6 months
drinking frequency (days per month), quantity (drinks per occasion), frequency of high-volume drinking (5 or more drinks per occasion
6 months
Teen and sibling alcohol use
Time Frame: 12 months
drinking frequency (days per month), quantity (drinks per occasion), frequency of high-volume drinking (5 or more drinks per occasion
12 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Teen and sibling marijuana use
Time Frame: 3 months
Days of marijuana use in prior 3 months
3 months
Teen and sibling marijuana use
Time Frame: 6 months
Days of use in prior 3 months
6 months
Teen and siblings marijuana use
Time Frame: 12 months
Days of use in prior 3 months
12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Brown University

Collaborators

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

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

September 1, 2008

Primary Completion (Actual)

July 1, 2014

Study Completion (Actual)

July 1, 2014

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 19, 2009

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 19, 2009

First Posted (Estimate)

June 22, 2009

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

July 29, 2014

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 28, 2014

Last Verified

July 1, 2014

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • NIAAA-Spirito-AA017659
  • R01AA017659 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)
  • NIH Grant 1R01 AA017659-01

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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