Examining an Intervention to Reduce High School Drinking

June 17, 2026 updated by: Binghamton University

A Randomized Clinical Trial: Examining the Efficacy of eCHECKUP TO GO Combined With a Brief Parent-based Intervention to Reduce High School Student Drinking

Underage drinking is a significant problem in the United States. While past research supports the efficacy of interventions in delaying the initiation of alcohol use implemented in middle school and early high school, research shows drinking by older high schoolers is problematic and interventions for older high schoolers remain limited. The current project will test the efficacy of the e-CHECKUP TO GO (eCTG), alone and combined with an electronic-Parent-Based Intervention (ePBI), for junior and senior high school students using a nationally representative sample with the goal of reducing alcohol use and negative consequences.

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Prevalence rates of high school alcohol use suggest 61.6% of high school students have used alcohol by their senior year and 1 in 3 students report alcohol use past 30-days. High school risky drinking is associated with negative consequences including impaired neurocognitive functioning, academic problems, hangovers, passing out, unwanted sex, dating violence, suicide attempts, illicit drug use, riding with impaired drivers, and impaired driving.

While past research supports the efficacy of interventions in delaying the initiation of alcohol use implemented in middle school and early high school, research shows drinking by older high schoolers is problematic and interventions for older high schoolers remain limited. Implementation with high schoolers has always been difficult to sustain following the completion of the grant funding period due to large costs associated with personnel to hire, train, and supervise teachers and staff to implement interventions with fidelity. As an alternative, brief web-based personalized feedback interventions that do not require staffing or costs to implement to large numbers of students have shown promise (e.g., eCHECKUP TO GO; eCTG). Our preliminary work, including our funded NIAAA R21 study, supporting this proposal has shown eCTG is efficacious in changing normative perceptions of peer drinking frequency and drunkenness, positive alcohol expectancies, and reducing both alcohol use and consequences among high school students. The proposed research will expand on these findings by conducting a randomized controlled trial using the eCHECKUP TO GO (eCTG) alone and combined with an efficacious brief electronic-Parent-Based Intervention on a nationally representative sample of high school juniors and seniors.

The design is a four-arm RCT: eCTG, eCTG+, Parent-Only, and Control. Data collection will occur across 5 waves (pre-intervention baseline, 3-, 6-, 9-, 12- month follow-ups) for all arms. In all arms there is one wave for parents (3-month only).

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

2532

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

  • United States
    • New York
      • Binghamton, New York, United States, 13902
        • Binghamton 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

  • Child
  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Teen is aged 15-18/Parent has a teen aged 15-18
  • Parent and teen both consent (forming a dyad testing unit)
  • They are part of Ipsos' Knowledge Panel

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Outside of the teen age range/Parent does not have a teen aged 15-18

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: e-CHECKUP TO GO (eCTG)
A brief, web-based program designed by San Diego State University to reduce high-risk drinking by providing personalized normative feedback regarding alcohol use, risk factors, and risks associated with drinking and accurate information about alcohol
Behavioral: e-CHECKUP TO GO (eCTG)
A brief, web-based program designed by San Diego State University to reduce high-risk drinking by providing personalized normative feedback regarding alcohol use, risk factors, and risks associated with drinking and accurate information about alcohol.
Experimental: e-Parent Intervention and eCTG (eCTG+)
The eCTG+ is a combination of the eCTG and the e-Parent Intervention, which is an electronic handbook developed by Rob Turrisi to guide parents in discussing drinking, behaviors, and consequences with their teens.
Behavioral: e-CHECKUP TO GO (eCTG)
A brief, web-based program designed by San Diego State University to reduce high-risk drinking by providing personalized normative feedback regarding alcohol use, risk factors, and risks associated with drinking and accurate information about alcohol.
Behavioral: e-Parent Intervention
The e-Parent Intervention, which is an electronic handbook developed by Rob Turrisi to guide parents in discussing drinking, behaviors, and consequences with their teens.
Experimental: e-Parent Intervention
The e-Parent Intervention, which is an electronic handbook developed by Rob Turrisi to guide parents in discussing drinking, behaviors, and consequences with their teens.
Behavioral: e-Parent Intervention
The e-Parent Intervention, which is an electronic handbook developed by Rob Turrisi to guide parents in discussing drinking, behaviors, and consequences with their teens.
No Intervention: Control
No intervention is provided

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Examine changes in alcohol use
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month
A standard drink definition will be provided, indicating that a standard drink consists of 12 oz. of beer or wine cooler, 8.5 oz. of malt liquor, 4 oz. of wine, or 1.5 oz. of hard liquor. Using the Daily Drinking Questionnaire (DDQ), participants will indicate how many drinks they consumed on each day of a typical week during the past month. Participants will also be asked peak drinks and hours spent drinking during the occasion they drank the most during the past month.
Baseline, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Examine Changes in Consequences of Alcohol Use
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month
Alcohol-related consequences (e.g., said or done embarrassing things, blackout) from the past three months will be measured using the established Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire (BYAACQ). Response options will be measured on a 7-point scale ranging from (0) no, not in the past year to (6) 11 or more times in the past three months.
Baseline, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Examine Changes in Parental Communications
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month
General Communication (e.g., my mother/father is there for me when I want to talk) will be assessed separately for mothers and fathers based on level of agreement on a 7-point scale ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (7) strongly agree.
Baseline, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month
Examine Changes in Alcohol Use Expectancies
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month
Expectancies for using alcohol (e.g., I will feel badly about myself because of my drinking) will be measured. Responses will be recorded using 7-point scale ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (7) strongly agree.
Baseline, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month
Examine Changes in General Parental Practices
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month
General Parenting Practices (e.g., if I had a personal problem I could ask my mother/father for help) will be assessed separately for mothers and fathers based on level of agreement on a 7-point scale ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (7) strongly agree.
Baseline, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month
Examine Changes in Peer Injunctive Norms
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month
Perceived peer injunctive norms will be measured by indicating the level of approval participants' closest friends would have from a list of items (e.g., drinking alcohol every weekend) on a 7-point scale ranging from (1) strongly disapprove to (7) strongly approve.
Baseline, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month
Examine Changes in Parental Communication
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month
Parental communication about alcohol use will be assessed separately for mothers and fathers. Participants will be asked whether their parent discussed these topics (yes/no) with them within the past three months. Items include topics such as "the importance of not being pressured to drink to fit it".
Baseline, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month
Examine Changes in Parental Monitoring
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month
Parental monitoring (e.g., my mother/father tries to know about my drinking) will be assessed separately for mothers and fathers based on level of agreement on a 7-point scale ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (7) strongly agree.
Baseline, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month
Examine Changes in Parental Rules about Underage Drinking (Permissiveness)
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month
Parental permissiveness of underage drinking will be assessed using six items (e.g., I am allowed to drink alcohol on special occasions), based on level of agreement on a 7-point scale ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (7) strongly agree.
Baseline, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month
Examine Changes in Peer Descriptive Norms
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month
Perceived peer descriptive norms of drinking will be measured using the Daily Drinking Questionnaire (DDQ) by assessing how much alcohol, on average, participants' closest friends drink each day of the week.
Baseline, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Binghamton University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Nadine Mastroleo, PhD, Binghamton University

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 (Actual)

March 13, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

September 1, 2028

Study Completion (Estimated)

September 1, 2028

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 18, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 18, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

July 25, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 22, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 17, 2026

Last Verified

June 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • STUDY00006200

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

As part of funding requirements, data collected will be submitted to the NIAAA Data Archive.

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

Individuals will request access to the data via a data access request through the data archive.

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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