Social Identity Mapping for Adolescent Recovery (SIMAiR)

March 13, 2026 updated by: Emily Hennessy, Massachusetts General Hospital

The goal of this clinical trial is to address the gap between clinical treatment and adolescents' lived social environments by developing and testing a novel, interactive intervention-SIM-AiR-that directly targets social risk and protective factors. By helping youth visually and cognitively process their social identities and networks, SIM-AiR seeks to support more enduring recovery outcomes in adolescents (12-19 years old) with alcohol use disorder (AUD). The specific aims of this study protocol are to pilot the SIM-AiR intervention module and collect participant acceptability feedback and preliminary outcomes. The main questions it aims to answer are:

What is the acceptability of the SIM-AiR treatment module from the perspective of participants? Do participants' acceptability ratings of the SIM-AiR treatment module vary by personal and/or social network characteristics?

Clinicians will implement the SIM-AiR with an adolescent client. Clinicians will provide feedback to the study team on their experience to support future implementation. Participants will complete the SIM-AiR module during a treatment session with their clinician and participate in data collection with study staff (e.g., surveys, interviews) following the treatment session.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

  1. Specific Aims and Objectives

    The specific aims of this study protocol are to pilot the SIM-AiR intervention module with 60 adolescents (12-19 years old) with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and collect patient acceptability feedback and preliminary outcomes. 60 adolescents receiving outpatient AUD treatment will be recruited to receive the SIM-AiR module and to participate in study visit to collect acceptability information.

  2. General Description of Study Design

    This is Aim 2 of the R34 grant proposal, which is an intervention development grant. Aim 1 of this grant is pilot work directly with clinicians to finalize the treatment module. The SIM-AiR module will be incorporated as a single session for patients attending adolescent outpatient treatment program. In line with the aims of this as a pilot project, investigators will recruit clinicians to pilot the SIM-AiR and then our study team will conduct a single study visit with the clinician to get their feedback and with the adolescent to collect their acceptability feedback and other characteristics to consider necessary steps adaptation for implementation in a future larger clinical trial. As a pilot study, our focus will be on recruiting adolescents already seeking AUD treatment.

  3. Study Procedures

    After the adolescent participant has consented, the participant will be able to schedule their intervention session and study visit. The clinician will deliver the SIM-AiR in an individual treatment session with an adolescent client that will occur sometime after their initial treatment session. The session will be audio-recorded for fidelity. After each session, clinicians will be asked to complete an online survey about their immediate impressions of implementing the SIM-AiR with their client. The participant will also complete an interview after the first implementation of SIM-AiR to get immediate feedback on any areas that need to be adapted for future implementation. As clinicians conduct more SIM-AiR sessions study staff will conduct interviews, as necessary, to collect any new feedback on the procedure and materials.

    The adolescent participant will also be scheduled to participate in data collection following the treatment session with a member of the study team. A subset of adolescents will be selected for the interview. For those clients, the survey will be followed by the brief, audio-recorded interview with a member of the study team.

    Description of intervention: The clinician would engage the adolescent participant in the activity of social identity mapping (SIM) and use that to have a discussion, using motivational interviewing principles, about their social networks and social influences (supports, barriers) for treatment and recovery. The SIM process involves posing a series of questions to produce a visual map of the individual within their social network using paper, markers, and stickers. The SIMs capture the following data: size of social network via the number of social groups represented, each group's importance to the individual, number of days/month spent with each group, one's level of identification with each group, level of conflict between self and each group and between each group with each other, level of commonality between self and each group and between each group with each other, alcohol and other drug use among group members, type of group. The clinician would follow the SIM process with a motivational-interviewing styled discussion to elicit reflections from the participant and specific action steps the participant can take in their recovery process when with members of their social network.

    Description of data variables to be collected: Adolescents will be asked to complete an electronic survey to capture psychosocial characteristics. Clinicians will also complete a brief survey and an interview.

  4. Statistical Analysis

There is no plan to conduct interim or futility analyses given the pilot nature of the clinical trial. Alpha levels will be adjusted as appropriate depending on whether preliminary analyses or reviews of collected data are done, as well as when conducting any confirmatory a priori-specified analyses. The analysis will examine the acceptability of the SIM-AiR from the adolescent perspective by their Treatment Satisfaction score. In addition, distributions, descriptive statistics, and correlations for all survey measures will be examined including components from the SIM (i.e., number of groups, importance of groups, and sober versus substance-using groups; degree of importance and identification with low- and high-risk groups) to examine whether a participant's acceptability rating of the SIM-AiR varies by personal and/or social network characteristics. The analysis will take descriptive qualitative and constant comparative approaches to examine major themes related to the acceptability of the SIM-AiR module.

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

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Massachusetts
      • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02114
        • Recovery Research Institute; National Center on Youth Prevention, Treatment, & Recovery; Harvard Medical School
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Emily A Hennessy, PhD

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

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Eligible participants are adolescents (ages 12-19) enrolled as outpatient clients at an addiction treatment facility.
  • Meet criteria for alcohol use disorder (mild to severe) as per the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-V).
  • Be able to speak, read, and understand English.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Refusal to give informed consent, or if under 18 years old, do not have a parent willing for them to consent to participate.

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: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: SIM-AiR
As this is a single arm study, all participants will receive the SIM-AiR treatment module.
Behavioral: SIM-AiR
The clinician would engage the adolescent participant in the activity of social identity mapping (SIM) and use that to have a discussion, using motivational interviewing principles, about their social networks and social influences (supports, barriers) to treatment and recovery. The SIM process involves posing a series of questions to produce a visual map of the individual within their social network using paper, markers, and stickers. As this is a pilot study, this will be done once.
Other Names:
  • SIM
  • Social Identity Mapping

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
SIM-AiR Acceptability (Treatment satisfaction)
Time Frame: Baseline
The acceptability of the SIM-AiR module from adolescents' perspectives will be assessed using the validated Treatment Satisfaction scale. Participants will answer 5 questions on a likert scale of (1) 'Strongly disagree' to (5) 'Strongly agree'. Scores range from 5-25, with higher scores indicating a greater satisfaction with the SIM-AiR module.
Baseline
SIM-AiR Acceptability (Adolescent Treatment Engagement: Counseling Rapport sub scale)
Time Frame: Baseline
The acceptability of the SIM-AiR module from adolescents' perspectives will be assessed using the validated Counseling Rapport sub scale of the TCU Adolescent Engagement Form. Participants will answer 11 questions on a likert scale of (1) 'Strongly disagree' to (5) 'Strongly agree'. Scores range from 10-50, with higher scores indicating a greater rapport with the treatment counselor.
Baseline
SIM-AiR Acceptability (Acceptability of Intervention Measure)
Time Frame: Baseline
The acceptability of the SIM-AiR module from clinicians' perspectives will be assessed using the validated Acceptability of Intervention Measure (AIM). Clinicians will answer 4 questions on a likert scale of (1) 'Completely disagree' to (5) 'Completely agree'. Scores range from 4-20, with higher scores indicating a greater perceived acceptability of the SIM-AiR as a treatment module.
Baseline
SIM-AiR Appropriateness (Intervention Appropriateness Measure)
Time Frame: Baseline
The appropriateness of the SIM-AiR module from clinicians' perspectives will be assessed using the validated Intervention Appropriateness Measure (IAM). Clinicians will answer 4 questions on a likert scale of (1) 'Completely disagree' to (5) 'Completely agree'. Scores range from 4-20, with higher scores indicating a greater perceived appropriateness of the SIM-AiR as a treatment module.
Baseline
SIM-AiR Feasibility (Feasibility of Intervention Measure)
Time Frame: Baseline
The feasibility of the SIM-AiR module from clinicians' perspectives will be assessed using the validated Feasibility of Intervention Measure (FIM). Clinicians will answer 4 questions on a likert scale of (1) 'Completely disagree' to (5) 'Completely agree'. Scores range from 4-20, with higher scores indicating a greater perceived feasibility of the SIM-AiR as a treatment module.
Baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Massachusetts General Hospital

Collaborators

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
University of Connecticut

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Emily A Hennessy, PhD, Recovery Research Institute; National Center on Youth Prevention, Treatment, & Recovery; Harvard Medical School

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)

August 1, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

October 1, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

August 1, 2028

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 6, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 13, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

March 16, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 16, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 13, 2026

Last Verified

March 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2025P001514
  • 1R34AA032288-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

Given the size of the trial and the proposed participant sample, the potential risks to breaches of confidentiality are too great.

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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