Extension and Online Adaptation of the FITSTART parent-based intervention to reduce drinking among first-year students

Information

  • Research Project
  • 9669921
  • ApplicationId
    9669921
  • Core Project Number
    R34AA026422
  • Full Project Number
    1R34AA026422-01A1
  • Serial Number
    026422
  • FOA Number
    PA-18-067
  • Sub Project Id
  • Project Start Date
    9/20/2018 - 6 years ago
  • Project End Date
    8/31/2021 - 3 years ago
  • Program Officer Name
    SCOTT, MARCIA S
  • Budget Start Date
    9/20/2018 - 6 years ago
  • Budget End Date
    8/31/2019 - 5 years ago
  • Fiscal Year
    2018
  • Support Year
    01
  • Suffix
    A1
  • Award Notice Date
    9/17/2018 - 6 years ago

Extension and Online Adaptation of the FITSTART parent-based intervention to reduce drinking among first-year students

Project Summary The proposed project seeks to adapt, optimize, and extend our successful brief parent-based intervention (PBI). While previous PBIs have focused solely on giving parents information about how to communicate with teens, the FITSTART intervention was designed based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to motivate parents to engage with the information and apply it to their communication with their teens. Delivered to groups of parents during summer orientation sessions, FITSTART included a live social norms intervention to correct perceptions about how often other parents communicate with their students, how approving other parents are of underage drinking, and how often students will likely drink in college. Consistent with the TPB, we also presented information designed to change parents' attitudes about college alcohol use. This novel approach demonstrated robust short-term effects during students' first month on campus, reducing weekly drinks, the likelihood that non-drinking students would initiate alcohol use, and the likelihood that those already drinking would engage in heavy episodic drinking. However, the effects dissipated by the second semester and the live small-group format limits the extent to which FITSTART can be easily disseminated to parents nationwide. The current 3-year project will adapt FITSTART to create FITSTART+. We will employ technology we have developed over the past two years informed by the literature on virtual co-presence?a phenomenon by which persons inhabiting a shared online space can feel a sense of community?to create an online version of FITSTART that maintains the benefits of the live program while increasing the reach and scope of the intervention substantially. In Phase I we will employ Participatory Design Methods (PDM) to allow approximately 680 parents to help design the intervention's interface and content themselves through focus groups, surveys, and PDM exercises. Simultaneously we will work with a web designer and a New York Times bestselling author to create and adjust the online intervention platform and content based on feedback from parents. Then, in Phase II we will conduct a feasibility and efficacy trial of the final FITSTART+ program with a sample of 600 parent-student dyads. After students complete a baseline survey during July prior to their arrival on campus, parents will be randomized to FITSTART+ or a control program that corrects norms related to general college health behaviors rather than alcohol use. Importantly, this will test feasibility, not just efficacy. Thus, the program will be marketed to parents as it would be in a ?real world? dissemination (i.e., parents will be told the program is being offered by the university for free rather than being told it is part of a research study). Students will complete follow-up surveys during the Fall and at the end of the Spring semester to assess short- and long-term alcohol use and consequences. If pilot results are promising, Parent FITSTART+ will be well-positioned for a large scale, multi-site R01 proposal to evaluate the efficacy of this cost-effective and easily-disseminated parent intervention both alone and in conjunction with existing student interventions.

IC Name
NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON ALCOHOL ABUSE AND ALCOHOLISM
  • Activity
    R34
  • Administering IC
    AA
  • Application Type
    1
  • Direct Cost Amount
    193750
  • Indirect Cost Amount
    85056
  • Total Cost
    278806
  • Sub Project Total Cost
  • ARRA Funded
    False
  • CFDA Code
    273
  • Ed Inst. Type
    SCHOOLS OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
  • Funding ICs
    NIAAA:278806\
  • Funding Mechanism
    Non-SBIR/STTR RPGs
  • Study Section
    AA
  • Study Section Name
    National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Initial Review Group
  • Organization Name
    LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY
  • Organization Department
    PSYCHOLOGY
  • Organization DUNS
    072946239
  • Organization City
    LOS ANGELES
  • Organization State
    CA
  • Organization Country
    UNITED STATES
  • Organization Zip Code
    900452650
  • Organization District
    UNITED STATES