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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2017 Jun:77:156-165.
doi: 10.1016/j.jsat.2017.02.002. Epub 2017 Mar 2.

Effects of a brief, parent-focused intervention for substance using adolescents and their sibling

Anthony Spirito  1 , Lynn Hernandez  2 , Kristine Marceau  3 , Mary Kathryn Cancilliere  4 , Nancy P Barnett  5 , Hannah R Graves  6 , Ana Maria Rodriguez  7 , Valerie S Knopik  8
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Effects of a brief, parent-focused intervention for substance using adolescents and their sibling

Anthony Spirito et al. J Subst Abuse Treat. 2017 Jun.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the Family Check-up (FCU), a parent-focused brief motivational intervention, in families where parents were concerned about one adolescent's alcohol or marijuana use and the referred adolescent also had a sibling close in age. The primary goal of the FCU was to provide individualized feedback on specific parenting skills, including monitoring and supervision, limit setting, and alcohol-related communication. A total of 92 adolescents (37 female) between the ages of 12-19years of age along with a sibling (48 female) between the ages of 11-21years old, were randomized to the FCU or a psychoeducation (PE) comparison condition. Findings indicated that the FCU did not produce better effects on alcohol and other drug use outcomes than the PE condition, in either the adolescent or sibling. Brief interventions addressing parenting behaviors may not be sufficient to reduce alcohol use in adolescent drinkers not referred due to an alcohol-related incident. Future research might be conducted to explore whether brief parent interventions, such as those in the present study, could be useful as a preventive intervention for parents whose teens report low levels of substance use.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00925340.

Keywords: Adolescence; Brief interventions; Family Check-up; Psychoeducation; Underage drinking.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Parental Monitoring Knowledge by Teen Alcohol Use Note: Teen alcohol use refers to average alcohol use across baseline and all 3 follow-up points using a log-transformed score.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Parental Monitoring Knowledge by Sibling Alcohol Use Note: Sibling alcohol use refers to average alcohol use across baseline and all 3 follow-up points using a log-transformed score.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Parental Monitoring Knowledge by Teen Heavy Alcohol Use
Figure 4
Figure 4
Parental Monitoring Knowledge by Sibling Heavy Alcohol Use
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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