Sun Safe Together: A Digital Skin Cancer Prevention Intervention for Adolescents and Their Parents

June 30, 2026 updated by: Dr. Carolyn Heckman, Ph.D, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

A Digital Skin Cancer Prevention Intervention for Adolescents and Their Parents

The goal of this pilot clinical trial is to learn if a digital intervention to improve sun safety, Sun Safe Together (SST), is feasible and acceptable to teenagers and their parents.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Melanoma is a leading cause of invasive cancer in teens and young adults aged 15-39. Most skin cancers are preventable with skin protection such as minimizing UVR exposure and wearing protective clothing and sunscreen. However, teens have low levels of sun protection. Thus, interventions targeting skin cancer risk reduction among teens are needed. The proposed Sun Safe Together (SST) intervention is a 12-week program consisting of sun safety and general health messages sent via multimedia messaging service (MMS) to teens and via a private Facebook group for parents.

This pilot trial is a single arm test of SST to determine:

  1. feasibility of enrolling parent-teen dyads
  2. engagement with/acceptability of the intervention via message views and acceptability ratings
  3. outcome data collection feasibility (i.e., daily diary, UVR exposure measured by UVR dosimeter)
  4. retention rates for teens and parents at 3 and 6 months

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

104

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 Jersey
      • New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States, 08901
        • Recruiting
        • Rutgers Cancer Institute
        • Contact:
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Carolyn J. Heckman, PhD
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Katie A. Devine, PhD, MPH

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
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Parents and teens are participating as dyads, meaning both the parent and the teen need to be deemed eligible based on the criteria below to be able to participate.

Teens

  • Must be ages 13-17 years
  • Live with study parent equal to or greater than half time in US
  • Have experienced sunburn or indoor tanned in the last year or have a suboptimal sun protection score
  • Have no personal history of melanoma or severe medical condition that prevents participation
  • Have access to smartphone
  • Speak and read English

Parents/Guardians

  • Must be age 18 or older
  • Live with a teen equal to or greater than half time in US
  • Have a teen who had experienced sunburn or indoor tanned in the last year or have a suboptimal sun protection score
  • Have no personal history of melanoma or severe medical condition that prevents participation
  • Have internet at home, a Facebook account, and be willing to use Facebook daily
  • Have access to smartphone
  • Speak and read English

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

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Teen MMS & Parent Facebook Intervention
Behavioral: Teen MMS
Teens will receive MMS messages regarding sun safety behaviors and other general health issues for 12 weeks.
Behavioral: Parent Facebook
Parents of teenagers join a private Facebook group where membership, activities, and content are only viewable by invited members. Content related to teen sun safety and general health will be posted for 12 weeks. Research staff will moderate the group.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Feasibility of recruitment
Time Frame: Baseline
Feasibility of recruitment will be assessed by the proportion of eligible parent-teen dyads that enroll in the study
Baseline
Acceptability of MMS intervention
Time Frame: Immediately after the intervention
Items were adapted from the Acceptability of Intervention and Feasibility of Intervention Measures to obtain participant feedback about the acceptability, feasibility, ease of use, and impact of the intervention. Individual items are rated on a 5-point likert scale from (1) Completely Disagree to (5) Completely Agree. Higher scores indicated greater acceptability.
Immediately after the intervention
Engagement with MMS intervention
Time Frame: 3-months
Proportion of messages viewed will be calculated to describe engagement.
3-months
Feasibility of Outcome Data Collection - 7-Day Diaries
Time Frame: Baseline, 3-months, 6-months
Proportion of teens who complete 7-day diaries will be calculated.
Baseline, 3-months, 6-months
Feasibility of Outcome Data Collection - UVR Dosimeter
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 months
Proportion of teens who return UVR dosimeter with usable data will be calculated.
Baseline, 6 months
Retention
Time Frame: 3-months, 6-months
Proportion of enrolled teens who complete surveys at 3- and 6-months will be calculated.
3-months, 6-months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Collaborators

National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Carolyn Heckman, PhD, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
  • Principal Investigator: Katie A Devine, PhD, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

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)

June 1, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

February 1, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

February 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 25, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 30, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

July 2, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 2, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 30, 2026

Last Verified

June 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Pro2025001264
  • R34CA293237 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

De-identified study data and associated documentation will be made available to the research community through the Data Sharing for Demographic Research (DSDR) data repository hosted at the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR).

IPD Sharing Time Frame

Data will be made available by the time of associated publication or the end of grant funding (whichever is later). The duration of preservation and sharing of the data will be indefinite.

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

De-identified human subject data will be made available in the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) data repository, which restricts access to the data to qualified investigators with an appropriate research question who complete a data use agreement and provide a data security plan.

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL
  • SAP
  • ICF

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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