Peer MI in FQHCs for Substance-using Emerging Adults

This project randomizes peer dyads, consisting of one Emerging Adult (EA), 18-29 years old, who both has a substance use problem and attends a Federally-qualified Health Center (i.e. target client), and one peer, to one of three conditions. In the Peer-Enhanced Motivational Interviewing (PMI) condition, target clients and peers will receive separate one-hour sessions of Motivational Interviewing (MI), an empirically-supported treatment that helps individuals work through ambivalence about making changes in substance use. MI is thought to work because it is a non-confrontational intervention where a therapist empathetically reviews substance use behaviors, listens empathetically, and reinforces any client statements indicating a desire to change. With the "peer" of each PMI dyad, the therapist presents peer with data about the extent of the target client's substance use, builds the peer's motivation to help their friend, and teaches the peer communication skills they can use to influence the target client's substance use. In the Motivational Interviewing only (MI) condition, the target client alone will receive the MI intervention with no peer participation. In the Waitlist (WC) condition, target clients and peers can receive the intervention at 2 months into the follow-up period for the PMI group.

The main purpose of this study is to test whether a Peer-Enhanced Motivational Interviewing (PMI) intervention, which has been successful with college students, results in superior alcohol and marijuana use outcomes for emerging adults (EA), ages 18-29, who are clients of Federally-qualified Health Centers, and their peers. Seventy-five peer dyads (total n = 150, ntarget client = 75, npeer = 75) will be randomized to receive either Peer-Enhanced Motivational Interviewing (PMI), Motivational Interviewing only (MI) or Waitlist Control (WC.)