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Completed

NCT Number: NCT01546025

Brief Alcohol Intervention for School-to-Work Transitions

This is a 2-year research project to test the efficacy of brief motivational intervention for reducing heavy alcohol use in young adults transitioning out of high school. Participation occurs within 3 months prior to graduation or within 1 year following graduation or dropout from high school. Heavy drinkers ages 17-20 will be randomly assigned to receive one session of BMI or one session of relaxation training. All participants complete identical assessments at baseline and immediately post-intervention (during session 1). Participants also complete in-person 6-week and 3-month follow up assessments to evaluate intervention effects. Study aims involve: a) testing the comparative efficacy of BMI; b) identifying moderators (person-level predictors) of intervention response; and c) identifying mediators (mechanisms) of intervention effects, that is, how BMI exerts its effect on outcomes.

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Key information

Conditions

Binge Drinking Alcohol Drinking Alcohol-Related Disorders Behavior Chemically-Induced Disorders Drinking Behavior Mental Disorders Substance-Related Disorders

Age range

17 year–20 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

About this study

This study tested the efficacy of a single session of BMI for reducing heavy drinking and related adverse consequences among underage young adult drinkers not attending a 4-year college or university. We designed the intervention to be delivered proximal to the transition out of high school (with or without graduation), because such periods of transition and discontinuity in the life course present opportunities to positively alter developmental paths (Masten et al., 2009). Thus, interventions timed to co-occur with naturalistic transition points may have great potential for decreasing drinking trajectories or preventing harmful escalations in trajectories going forward. To increase the applicability of our findings to the heterogeneous population of community-dwelling young adults, our recruitment targeted a purposefully inclusive "non-4-year-college" population. We hypothesized that, compared to a time and attention-matched control condition (i.e., relaxation training [REL]), BMI would result in significantly reduced heavy drinking and reduced adverse consequences of alcohol use at 6-week and 3-month follow-up.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • high school students anticipating graduation within 3 months, drop outs or graduates
  • males must report at least one day drinking 5 or more standard drinks in past month
  • females must report at least one day drinking 4 or more standard drinks in past month

Exclusion criteria

  • plans to enroll at traditional 4-year college within 12 months
  • plans to enter military within next 12 months
  • plans to move more than 1 hour from current location in within 12 months

Treatment and study plan

Brief Motivational Counseling

Behavioral

One hour session of brief motivational counseling focused on reduction of heavy drinking.

Other names: Brief Motivational Intervention, BMI

Relaxation Training

Behavioral

One hour training in relaxation techniques

Other names: REL

Primary outcomes

  1. Timeline Follow Back Assessing Number of Standard Drinks

    Time frame: 3 months

    This is a calculation of the number of standard alcohol drinks consumed per week, based on data collected via the timeline follow back interview

Secondary outcomes

  1. Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire

    Time frame: 6 week and 3 month follow ups

    Measure of problem severity in young adult drinkers. Respondents indicated on the Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire (BYAACQ; Kahler et al., 2005) whether they had experienced each of 24 adverse alcohol-related consequences in the prior 6 weeks; items are summed for a total score (Cronbach's α = 0.81 at BL), with a minimum score of 0 and a maximum score of 24. Higher scores indicate worse outcome.

  2. Help Seeking

    Time frame: 6 week and 3 month follow ups

    Count of participants reporting receiving any type of counseling for alcohol in the prior 6 weeks

  3. Drinking Reduction Strategies

    Time frame: 6 week and 3 month follow ups

    Total score on the Strategies to Limit Drinking 31-item scale. Likert response for each item ranges from 1 = never to 5 = always; range = 31 to 155; higher scores indicate better outcomes: higher scores reflect greater frequency of using various strategies to deliberately limit one's drinking over the past 6 weeks

  4. Employment Outcomes

    Time frame: 6 week and 3 month follow ups

    Mean score on the "Your Workplace" questionnaire: Negative Effects on Work Performance subscale.

    Range = 0 to 5. Response options for each item on the subscale are 0 = never; 1 = once or twice, 2 = about once every 2 weeks, 3 = about once a week, 4 = 2-4 times a week, 5 = about daily.

    Higher scores indicate worse outcomes: Higher scores reflect more frequent negative effects of alcohol use on work performance in the past 6 weeks.

  5. Satisfaction With Life

    Time frame: 6 week and 3 month follow ups

    This is a mean score on the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), a 5-item instrument designed to measure global cognitive judgments of life satisfaction, using a 7-point Likert scale (1=strongly disagree to 7=strongly agree), with higher scores indicating better outcomes, i.e., higher scores indicate greater life satisfaction at the time of assessment. Range = 1 to 7.

  6. Adolescent Reinforcement Survey Schedule (ARSS)

    Time frame: 6 week and 3 month follow ups

    The ARSS contains a list of 45 rewarding activities. Participants rate the frequency with which they participate in each activity WITH and then WITHOUT alcohol/drug use, and then rate their enjoyment of each activity WITH and WITHOUT alcohol/drug use. The outcome measure represents the percentage of reinforcement participants get (i.e., the cross product of frequency X enjoyment) from activities involving alcohol/drug use divided by the total reinforcement they get from all activities with or without alcohol/drug use. Range = 0 to 100; higher scores indicate worse outcomes, i.e., higher scores reflect a greater percentage of enjoyable activities involving alcohol and/or use.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Brown University

Other

Collaborators

  • National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

Registry information

Important dates

Study start
2010
Primary completion
2011
Study completion
2011
First posted
Mar 7, 2012
Registry last updated
Jun 12, 2025

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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