Alcohol Use, Underage clinical trials

JUNTOS Familia Preventive Intervention

The primary objective of this study is to develop and pilot-test a family-based Latino youth alcohol use preventive intervention for Latino youth (ages 14-16) and one of their parents. The preventive intervention will equip youth, parents, and families with skills to manage stress related to prejudice, discrimination, and racism as a means to reduce Latino youth alcohol use risk. Informed by ecodevelopmental, social norms, family stress, stress and coping theories, and racial socialization theories, the central hypothesis is that active coping skills can buffer against the negative effect of social stressors (i.e., experiences related to prejudice, discrimination, and racism) on youth alcohol outcomes/related risks/cognitions; and active coping skills can offset the negative effect of social stress on parental adjustment, family functioning and parenting behaviors, thereby reducing youth alcohol use risk. Using an iterative approach to intervention development, within a mixed-method research design, the purpose of this study is to construct intervention sessions that impart active coping skills to better manage social stress related to prejudice, discrimination, and racism. In Aim 1, we will use qualitative methods to inform the development of intervention sessions that target coping with prejudice, discrimination, and racism. I will conduct focus groups with youth (5 groups, n=6-8) and parents (5 groups, n=6-8) to identify how youth and parents experience and cope with perceived ethnic discrimination; the skills and resources they would like to further develop; and to seek input regarding the structure and logistics of the intervention. In Aim 2, we will create a family-based youth alcohol use preventive intervention curriculum that targets coping with prejudice, discrimination, and racism. I will identify strategies used in existing preventive interventions and draw from Aim 1 qualitative findings to develop tentative intervention sessions. We will then conduct focus groups with youth (5 groups, n=6-8) and parents (5 groups, n=6-8) to seek feedback on tentative intervention sessions. We will then integrate focus group data into the intervention curriculum and modify it accordingly and develop manuals in English and Spanish. In Aim 3, we will pilot test the intervention among Latino families (i.e., one youth and one parent) in Texas. We will pilot test the intervention with 60 families (i.e., youth-parent dyads; N=30 intervention group; N = 30 comparison group) from high schools in the Austin Independent School District to a) assess intervention feasibility and acceptability, and b) determine preliminary effect size estimates for the intervention's promise to improve youth and parent coping skills, family functioning, parenting behaviors, and youth alcohol outcomes.