Using Values to Enhance Inmates' Response to Substance Use and HIV Risk Feedback

Summary

A key component of effective offender treatment is an initial assessment of risk factors followed by feedback to facilitate problem awareness and engagement in appropriate treatment and/or behavior change. Feedback regarding areas of high risk, however, can be experienced as threatening.

The investigators propose to develop, fine-tune, and pilot-test a computerized system for risk assessment and feedback, including evaluation of a brief pre-feedback prosocial values affirmation exercise (Cohen \& Sherman, 2014) aimed at decreasing defensiveness and increasing inmates' willingness to access and process risk-relevant information and to utilize post-release treatment resources, thereby reducing post-release substance misuse, HIV risk behavior, and criminal recidivism. Participants will be 170 jail inmates nearing release into the community - 20 pilot participants and 150 study participants randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) Values Affirmation + Personalized Risk Feedback; (2) Personalized Risk Feedback only; (3) Control. The baseline and risk assessment, values affirmation manipulation, and personalized risk feedback will be presented via touch-screen computers, requiring minimal training to administer. Analyses will assess:

1. The feasibility of utilizing a computerized system to assess and share risk information with jail inmates, including a brief values affirmation exercise to reduce defensiveness;
2. The acceptability of this approach from the perspectives of jail staff and inmates themselves;
3. The impact of the intervention on observed proximal outcomes (mechanisms of action), such as time spent viewing feedback, electing to print a copy of informational and treatment resources, and consequent changes in perceptions of risk, treatability, etc.;
4. The impact of the intervention on key post-release outcomes including engagement in relevant treatment services, substance misuse, HIV risk behaviors, re-offense and re-arrest;
5. The links between proximal outcomes (MOAs) and key post-release outcomes;
6. Potential moderators of treatment effectiveness.

Conditions

• Substance Use
• HIV Risk Behavior

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Values Affirmation

Experimental Group selects two values and describes why they are important

BEHAVIORAL

Risk Feedback

Experimental and comparator conditions both receive normative feedback in domains of risk

Sponsors & Collaborators

• OAR, Fairfax

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Slonky, Inc

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• George Mason University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• June P Tangney, PhD · George Mason University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

QUADRUPLE

Model

FACTORIAL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-08-27

Primary Completion

2020-04-01

Completion

2020-08-01