Developing and Testing an Online Intervention for Alcohol and Cannabis Misuse and Healthy Relationship Skills Among Young Adult Couples

May 4, 2026 updated by: Katherine Walukevich-Dienst, University of Washington

Developing and Testing an Online Intervention for Decreasing Alcohol and Cannabis Misuse and Increasing Healthy Relationship Skills Among Young Adult Couples: A Comprehensive Mixed-methods Approach

The goal of this clinical trial is to develop and test a brief online intervention to reduce alcohol and cannabis misuse and improve healthy relationship skills among young adult couples. The main questions it aims to answer are:

  • Will the intervention be feasible and acceptable to young adult couples?
  • Will the intervention demonstrate initial efficacy in reducing risky substance use and increasing relationship functioning?

Eligible couples will complete a virtual baseline session and be randomized to intervention condition (online intervention with 3-5 weeks of self-paced modules) or control condition (no intervention). Couples will complete two follow-up surveys (post-assessment - approximately 5 weeks after baseline, 3-month). Couples in the control condition will be offered the intervention after 3-month follow-up.

Researchers will compare intervention and control groups to see if there there is a difference between the groups on substance misuse and relationship functioning at post-assessment and 3-month follow-up.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

60

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 Contact

  • Name: Katherine Walukevich-Dienst, PhD
  • Phone Number: 508-282-0413
  • Email: kwd1@uw.edu

Study Contact Backup

  • Name: Hana Basu, BA
  • Phone Number: 425-372-6459

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

  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Both partners in the couple are 18-29 years old
  • In a committed romantic relationship (e.g., dating seriously, cohabiting, married) with each other for at least 3 months
  • Face-to-face contact their partner at least 5 days per week
  • Live in Washington State
  • Have a valid email address and access to a cell phone
  • Report alcohol and cannabis co-use at least three times in the past month
  • Willingness to: complete online surveys during the allotted time frames, receive text messages and emails from the project, complete a baseline session, and participate during the same time period as their partner

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Couples who endorse any perpetration or receipt of severe interpersonal aggression during screening will be excluded and provided with resources

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: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Online, couples-based intervention
A novel, brief online intervention for young adults community couples who engage in alcohol and cannabis co-use.
Behavioral: Online, couples-based intervention
During Phase 1 of the present study, the intervention will be iteratively developed using a rigorous, user-centered design approach through integration of knowledge gained from Phase 1 dyadic analyses and qualitative interviews, and existing gold-standard treatments for substance use among couples, including Integrative Behavioral Couples Therapy (IBCT; Christensen & Doss, 2016) and Behavioral Couples Therapy for Alcohol (ABCT; McCrady et al, 1995) and substance use brief interventions for young adults (Halladay, et al., 2019; Tanner-Smith et al., 2015).
No Intervention: Assessment-only control
Couples in the control condition will not receive an intervention.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Heavy episodic and high intensity drinking
Time Frame: Screening, baseline, approximately 5 weeks after baseline, 3-month followup
Alcohol use - number of days in the past month participant engaged in heavy episodic drinking (4+/5+ drinks in one occasion for women/men) and high intensity drinking (8+/10+ drinks in one occasion for women/men)
Screening, baseline, approximately 5 weeks after baseline, 3-month followup
Daily Drinking Questionnaire (DDQ)
Time Frame: Screening, baseline, approximately 5 weeks after baseline, 3-month followup
Alcohol use - Average total drinks per week will be calculated as the sum of the total number of drinks reported.
Screening, baseline, approximately 5 weeks after baseline, 3-month followup
Daily Marijuana Questionnaire (DMQ)
Time Frame: Screening, baseline, approximately 5 weeks after baseline, 3-month followup
Cannabis use - Average total hours high from cannabis per week will be calculated as the sum of the total hours high reported
Screening, baseline, approximately 5 weeks after baseline, 3-month followup
Intensity of Marijuana Use
Time Frame: Screening, baseline, approximately 5 weeks after baseline, 3-month followup
Cannabis use intensity - Average number of times used cannabis per day will be calculated as the mean number of times participant reports using cannabis per each day of a typical week in the past month
Screening, baseline, approximately 5 weeks after baseline, 3-month followup
Perceived Program Effects on Healthy Relationship Self-Efficacy items
Time Frame: Screening, baseline, approximately 5 weeks after baseline, 3-month followup
Healthy relationship self-efficacy - 3 items assessing perceived intervention impacts on healthy relationship self-efficacy scored 0=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree. Scores will be summed, total scores will range from 0 to 15, with higher scores indicating greater healthy relationship self-efficacy
Screening, baseline, approximately 5 weeks after baseline, 3-month followup
Couples Satisfaction Index
Time Frame: Screening, baseline, approximately 5 weeks after baseline, 3-month followup
Relationship satisfaction - sum of 4 items ranges from 0 to 21, higher scores indicate greater relationship satisfaction
Screening, baseline, approximately 5 weeks after baseline, 3-month followup

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of Washington

Collaborators

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
National Institutes of Health (NIH)

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 (Estimated)

September 15, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

August 1, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

August 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 8, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 18, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

May 20, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

May 6, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 4, 2026

Last Verified

May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • STUDY00017992
  • K23AA031034-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

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.

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