View clinical trials related to Behavioral Research.
Filter by:The purpose of this study is to evaluate the Organizational Skills Training Program - School based version (OST-S) in a cluster randomized trial. Participating schools will be randomly assigned to one of two groups: 1) an OST-S intervention group and 2) a treatment as usual control group. Participating students (3rd through 5th grade) will be from at least 20 schools in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and include both urban and suburban schools serving a diverse population. OST-S is a small-group, skills training intervention for children, which includes parent and teacher consultation to support student use of new skills. The program is delivered by school staff who receive training and consultation from intervention experts.
Methamphetamine abuse has a strong and consistent epidemiologic association with high-risk sexual behavior and both prevalent and incident HIV in men who have sex with men (MSM), and some authorities have advocated methamphetamine treatment as an HIV prevention strategy. However, methamphetamine interventions have not been evaluated in controlled trials, nor have they been implemented and assessed outside of substance abuse treatment programs. This application proposes preliminary investigations to adapt a methamphetamine treatment intervention previously associated with decreased sexual-risk taking among MSM for use as an early intervention among MSM in Seattle, Washington. Sixty methamphetamine-using MSM will be enrolled in a randomized controlled trial of contingency management (CM) versus no intervention. CM participants will have their urine tested for methamphetamine 3 times weekly for 12 weeks, and will receive vouchers of escalating value when their urines test negative; vouchers will be withheld when participants' urines test positive for methamphetamine or participants miss urine testing visits. All participants will undergo urine methamphetamine testing and audio-computer assisted self-interviews on sexual behavior and substance use at baseline and at 6 week intervals for 6 months. Participants will be tested for HIV, syphilis, rectal gonorrhea and chlamydial infection, and pharyngeal gonorrhea at baseline and at 3 and 6 month follow-up. The study will determine how often MSM will initiate and complete the early intervention, and will longitudinally measure unsafe sexual behaviors among intervention and control participants. Study results will determine the feasibility of instituting and studying CM as an early intervention; define whether the intervention is sufficiently promising to justify a larger, definitive randomized controlled trial; and will provide estimates for defining the number of participants such a trial would require.
Over the past 30 years obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States (Ogden et al, 2006). While this epidemic affects all socioeconomic levels, certain racial/ethnic groups such as Hispanics, are disproportionately affected by obesity and diabetes. The age of onset of excess obesity in Hispanic females, formerly young adulthood, is now younger. Childhood obesity poses intermediate and long-term health risks, including: type 2 diabetes, hyperlipidemia, elevated blood pressure, and metabolic syndrome. Although biological factors may influence a child's risk for becoming overweight, the home environment has been shown to be a predisposing and reinforcing contextual factor for unhealthy eating and exercise behaviors. Since parents are the primary transmitters of Hispanic cultural practices and significantly influence their children's diet and physical activity behaviors from preschool through high school, family-based weight-gain prevention interventions are likely to be effective. The goal of this implementation study is to contribute to the reduction of racial/ethnic disparities in obesity and risk of type 2 diabetes by tailoring a recently successful childhood obesity prevention program originally developed for African American girls to implement and evaluate with preadolescent Hispanic girls.