This proposal will develop and test the feasibility of a hybrid internet-enhanced version of the Coping Power program for aggressive 5th grade children who are at risk for substance use. Coping Power is a preventive intervention with demonstrated efficacy and effectiveness for preadolescent children at-risk for substance abuse and delinquency. Despite its demonstrated preventive effects, the length of time required to implement Coping Power and similar evidence-based prevention programs has been identified as a barrier to providers'adoption of such programs and parents'attendance and engagement. To address this barrier, this application will develop a hybrid version of Coping Power which will permit it to be delivered more efficiently, with substantially fewer face-to-face sessions, while retaining all of the core content (Coping Power-Internet Enhanced;CP-IE). This innovative, targeted prevention approach will include 12 child sessions held every other week over a 6 month period, 7 parent sessions, and internet-delivered media components, which participants will access between in-person sessions. The use of internet-delivered media to augment the intervention is expected to further enhance children's and parents'interest in and retention of intervention- related content. This is consistent with empirical evidence that individuals pay more attention to and learn more deeply from multimedia presentations than from verbal-only messages, resulting in greater problem-solving transfer, as described in Kennedy's cognitive interaction model of multimedia interactivity research. This proposal will allow CP-IE to be developed and pilot-tested. Then, 96 at-risk, aggressive 5th grade students from 8 schools will be randomly assigned to participate in CP-IE or Care-as-Usual, using a matched pairs sampling design. CP-IE participants will access internet-delivered intervention content between in-person sessions, including animated videos that were developed to model key Coping Power topics. The primary aims of this proposal are to: 1) Develop an efficient, internet-augmented hybrid version of the Coping Power program for children who are at-risk for substance abuse and their parents;2) Assess the feasibility of the CP-IE program in retaining participants, and in determining if children and families view a high rate of the CP-IE internet- delivered content;3) Assess the acceptability of the CP-IE program, as indicated by child, parent and school counselor ratings, and ability to deliver CP-IE with high intervention integrity and implementation quality;4) Assess if CP-IE promotes a high level of participant motivation in the program, comprehension and retention of intervention content, and change in children's social cognition, self-regulation, and social competence abilities and in parents'parenting practices;and 5) Use the planned feasibility study as a basis for a large-scale randomized trial of CP-IE. Preliminary outcome effects of CP-IE within the feasibility study will also be explored. If its feasibility and subsequent efficacy are documented, the hybrid CP-IE program can be disseminated much more widely, and thus have broad public health significance in substance use prevention.

Public Health Relevance

The Coping Power program is a multi-component preventive intervention with demonstrated efficacy (Lochman &Wells, 2002a) and effectiveness (Lochman &Wells, 2002b;Lochman &Wells, 2004) for preventing substance abuse and delinquency in at-risk preadolescent children. This application will develop a hybrid version of the Coping Power intervention, which will allow for delivery of all of the core content from the full-length Coping Power program (which typically has 34 child sessions and 16 parent sessions) by providing a reduced number of in-person sessions (12 child, 7 parent sessions) that are enhanced by internet-delivered content (including video modeling, individualized feedback, and messaging features;CP-IE) between each in- person session. If its feasibility and subsequent efficacy is documented, the hybrid CP-IE program can be much more widely disseminated, and thus have broad public health significance in targeted prevention of substance use outcomes in children.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Type
Planning Grant (R34)
Project #
5R34DA034295-02
Application #
8538338
Study Section
Psychosocial Development, Risk and Prevention Study Section (PDRP)
Program Officer
Sims, Belinda E
Project Start
2012-09-01
Project End
2015-08-31
Budget Start
2013-09-01
Budget End
2014-08-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2013
Total Cost
$197,054
Indirect Cost
$60,251
Name
University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
045632635
City
Tuscaloosa
State
AL
Country
United States
Zip Code
35487