A Brief Intervention for Young Adult Substance Users With Interpersonal Trauma

Summary

This proposal seeks to improve a mobile-based brief intervention for young adults who engage in heavy alcohol use and have experienced interpersonal trauma. The enhancement involves incorporating adaptive coping strategies to address trauma-related distress and engaging peer coaches following the intervention to support sustained treatment effects. Participants will be randomly assigned to receive either the enhanced intervention with peer coaching or a standard version of the brief intervention. Follow-up assessments will be conducted at 3 and 6 months after the intervention. The research team expects that the trauma-informed and peer-supported brief intervention (TIPS-BI) will have low dropout rates, be well-received by participants, and lead to greater reductions in alcohol use than the standard brief intervention.

Conditions

• Heavy Drinking
• Alcohol Drinking
• Substance Use
• Drinking Behavior

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Standard Brief Intervention

Immediately following completion of the baseline assessment, participants will be texted a link to a secure website which contains the participant's personalized feedback. Personalized feedback is automatically presented via a programming algorithm that is based on the participants baseline survey responses. The personalized feedback component will include a personalized substance use profile, information on peer norms, prior substance-related consequences experienced by the participant, practical costs (e.g., money spent on substances, fees for a DUI), and standard protective behavioral strategies to limit substance-related risk.

BEHAVIORAL

Trauma-Informed and Peer-Supported Brief Intervention

In addition to the components of the standard brief intervention, the TIPS-BI will include personalized feedback about participants use of substances to cope. Additionally, participants will be provided with psychoeducation about the link between substance use, trauma, and coping motives, and information highlighting the iatrogenic effects that substance use has on negative emotions. Participants will also be given a series of evidence-based alternative coping strategies for managing trauma-related distress such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Participants will be asked to set goals related to utilization of these alternative coping strategies. Participants will then be informed that a trained peer who is part of the research team will follow up with them via text message at the monthly time points to review adherence to their goals and offer support.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Western Kentucky University

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

29 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-09-01

Primary Completion

2027-02-01

Completion

2027-10-01

Countries

• United States

Study Locations