Internet-Based Universal Prevention for Students and Parents to Prevent Alcohol and Cannabis Use Among Adolescents: Protocol for the Randomized Controlled Trial of Climate Schools Plus

Abstract

BackgroundEarly initiation of alcohol and cannabis use markedly increases the risk of harms associated with use, including the development of substance use and mental health disorders. To interrupt this trajectory, effective prevention during the adolescent period is critical. Despite evidence showing that parents can play a critical role in delaying substance use initiation, the majority of prevention programs focus on adolescents only. Accordingly, the Climate Schools Plus (CSP) program was developed to address this gap.ObjectiveThis paper outlines the protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the CSP program, a novel internet-based program for parents and students to prevent adolescent substance use and related harms. The CSP program builds on the success of the Climate Schools student programs, with the addition of a newly developed parenting component, which allows parents to access the internet-based content to equip them with knowledge and skills to help prevent substance use in their adolescents.MethodsA cluster RCT is being conducted with year 8 students (aged 12-14 years) and their parents from 12 Australian secondary schools between 2018 and 2020. Using blocked randomization, schools are assigned to one of the two groups to receive either the CSP program (intervention) or health education as usual (control). The primary outcomes of the trial will be any student alcohol use (≥1 standard alcoholic drink/s) and any student drinking to excess (≥5 standard alcoholic drinks). Secondary outcomes will include alcohol- and cannabis-related knowledge, alcohol use-related harms, frequency of alcohol consumption, frequency of drinking to excess, student cannabis use, parents’ self-efficacy to stop their children using alcohol, parental supply of alcohol, and parent-adolescent communication. All students and their parents will complete assessments on three occasions—baseline and 12 and 24 months postbaseline. In addition, students and parents in the intervention group will be asked to complete program evaluations on two occasions—immediately following the year 8 program and immediately following the year 9 program.ResultsAnalyses will be conducted using multilevel, mixed-effects models within an intention-to-treat framework. It is expected that students in the intervention group will have less uptake and excessive use of alcohol compared with the students in the control group.ConclusionsThis study will provide the first evaluation of a combined internet-based program for students and their parents to prevent alcohol and cannabis use.Trial RegistrationAustralian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12618000153213; https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=374178 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/71E0prqfQ)Registered Report IdentifierRR1-10.2196/10849

Effect of Social Competence Training on Tendency Towards High-Risk Behaviors in Male Adolescents Living in Welfare Boarding Centers

“…Those studies reported the effectiveness of teaching each of the components of social competence in reducing the tendency to use drugs in adolescents and addicts. Also, it is consistent with the results of Chapman et al (2018) who stated that to prevent the early onset of alcohol and marijuana use and reduce their risk, effective prevention in adolescence through increasing awareness of their complications, and related injuries are very important [51].…”

A Mobile Peer Intervention for Preventing Mental Health and Substance Use Problems in Adolescents: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial (The Mind Your Mate Study)

“…An effect size of 0.2, which is comparable with previous trials of anxiety, depression, and substance use prevention programs [20,21,[31][32][33][34], would have substantial benefits at the population level according to economic modeling [35]. It is anticipated that the majority of students in the year group of participating schools will take part in the study, based on participation rates found in previous school-based trials conducted by the research team [36][37][38][39]. To account for school dropouts during the trial, which are expected to be approximately 10% based on similar previous school-based trials [40], this study will recruit 14 schools (with at least 840 students).…”

24-month outcomes of an eHealth universal program for students and parents to prevent adolescent alcohol use: A cluster randomized controlled trial in schools

“…In line with our published protocol ( Newton et al, 2018 ), the primary hypothesis is that the CSP program will be more effective than health education as usual in reducing the rate of increase in alcohol use, heavy episodic drinking and alcohol-related harms among adolescents up to 24 months post-baseline.…”

“…The Climate Schools Plus (CSP) combined student and parent program was developed to fill this gap ( Thornton et al, 2018a ). The current study presents the outcomes of a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the CSP program in Australian secondary schools ( Newton et al, 2018 ).…”