Individual and Family Motivational Interviews for Substance Using Truant Teens

This application will provide a test of one potential model for adding substance use assessment and brief intervention into a truancy court program. The primary goal of this study is to determine whether a motivational intervention will reduce substance use among adolescents referred to truancy court for school attendance problems. In this treatment development application, an open trial with 20 families referred by truancy court will first be conducted. This trial will be used to adapt an existing motivational intervention to include material relevant to school attendance and performance. Then 100 families participating in the Rhode Island Truancy Court Program with adolescents between the ages of 13-16 years who report using substances will be randomly assigned to receive the experimental intervention plus standard truancy court procedures or psychoeducation plus standard truancy court procedures. The 2-session intervention protocol consists of an individual motivational interview plus the Family Check-Up (Dishion & Kavanagh, 2003), a family based motivational interview. The experimental protocol provides a thorough assessment of both individual and family strengths and weaknesses with respect to substance use prevention and school attendance/performance. Follow-up interviews will be conducted at 3 and 6 months.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Substance Use
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Family Check-up/ Individual MI; Behavioral: Individual and family psychoeducation

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 69
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Rhode Island
    • Providence, Rhode Island, United States, 02912
      • Brown University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 13 years to 16 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. between the ages of 13-16 at the start of the project and living at home with at least one parent/guardian,
2. t- score of 70 or above on one of the diagnostic-oriented scales (internalizing or externalizing problems) on the Child Behavior Checklist (i.e. reach the clinical cut-off),
3. the child must report 6 or more incidences of substance use in the last 90 days,
4. parental consent and child assent are obtained.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. adolescent meets diagnostic criteria for substance dependence suggesting need for more intensive services,
2. the family is not able to speak and understand English or Spanish well enough to complete study procedures.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Family Check-up/Individual MI; Two session motivational intervention to improve parent monitoring and communication with respect to adolescent risk behavior especially substance use plus 2 session Individual Motivational Intervention for the adolescent	Behavioral: Family Check-up/ Individual MI; The 2-session intervention protocol consists of an individual motivational interview plus the Family Check-Up (Dishion & Kavanagh, 2003), a family based motivational interview. The experimental protocol provides a thorough assessment of both individual and family strengths and weaknesses with respect to substance use prevention and school attendance/performance.; Other Names: (Family Check-up)
Active Comparator: Psychoeducation; Two sessions of psychoeducation for parents regarding adolescent risk behaviors especially substance use	Behavioral: Individual and family psychoeducation; Families in PE will return for the same number of visits as the IMI and FCU sessions of the IMI/FCU condition. An interventionist will review a set of educational materials with the parents regarding teen SU use, truancy and risk behaviors and parenting a teenager. A similar set of materials will be reviewed with the adolescent; Other Names: (Psychoed)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Marijuana Use Days in Past 90 Days	Number of Days in which a Participant Responded "Yes" to Marijuana use in the Past 90 Days" range = 0 to 90; higher scores indicate more marijuana use	3 Month Follow-Up and 6 month follow-up
Alcohol Use Days in Past 90 Days	If a Participant Responded "Yes" to Alcohol use in the Past 90 Days" ; yes /no	3 and 6 Month Follow-Up

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Risky sexual behavior	Self-report of risky sexual behavior such as unprotected sex	3 month follow-up
Risky sexual behavior	Self-report of risky sexual behavior such as unprotected sex	6 month follow-up

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Brown University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Anthony Spirito, PhD, Brown Medicl School

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: August 1, 2010
• Primary Completion (Actual): January 1, 2013
• Study Completion (Actual): July 1, 2013

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 22, 2010
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 26, 2010
• First Posted (Estimated): July 27, 2010

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 25, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 28, 2024
• Last Verified: November 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: intervention; adolescents; substance use; truancy
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Chemically-Induced Disorders; Substance-Related Disorders
• Other Study ID Numbers: 1 R34 DA0029871