Assessing the Fit of Motivational Interviewing by Cultures With Adolescents

Summary

Hispanic adolescents experience more severe alcohol-related consequences due to their alcohol abuse and yet significantly fewer Hispanic adolescents receive alcohol treatment, particularly among justice-involved youth. Despite the level of research that has been conducted on motivational interviewing (MI) with mainstream samples, no published studies have investigated the efficacy of this brief, individual intervention with Hispanic adolescents. The overarching objective of this application is to evaluate the efficacy of a brief individual intervention (MI) for problem drinking behaviors with a sample of justice-involved Hispanic and Caucasian adolescents to determine if this intervention is differentially effective between Hispanic and Caucasian adolescents. Specifically, the first aim is to determine whether an MI intervention targeting alcohol abuse is effective at reducing alcohol use and related risk behavior in a sample of adolescent alcohol abusers. The second aim is to examine whether the effects of MI on problem drinking outcomes (e.g., alcohol problems, quantity of drinking, frequency of binging) are different between Hispanic versus Caucasian adolescents. Because it is important to determine the mechanisms that mediate the effects of MI and determine whether these mechanisms differ between Caucasian and Hispanic adolescents, the third aim is to examine whether group (Hispanic vs. Caucasian) moderates the mediational linkages in the overall model using a cross-groups approach to moderated mediation. To accomplish these aims, 453 Caucasian and Hispanic justice-involved alcohol abusing adolescents (ages 14-17) will be randomized to either two 60 minute MI interventions (one at baseline and a second, one week later) or an education condition. All adolescents will receive behavioral assessments at baseline, 3, 6 and 12 months. The proposed research is expected to take a significant step towards reducing current racial/ethnic health disparities in alcohol treatment for Hispanic adolescents.

Conditions

• Alcoholism

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Motivational Interviewing

OTHER

Education

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institutes of Health (NIH)

  collaborator NIH

• National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

  collaborator NIH

• University of New Mexico

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Sarah W. Feldstein Ewing, Ph. D. · Assistant Professor UNM

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

13 Years

Max Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2009-10-31

Primary Completion

2015-07-31

Completion

2015-07-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations