Brief Intervention for Families of Teens Treated in the Emergency Department for an Alcohol-Related Event

The long-term objectives of this research program are to develop effective interventions in health care settings for reducing problem drinking and associated problems among adolescents and to further enhance intervention approaches by identifying effective elements of treatment. The major purpose of this study is to compare a brief integrated individual and family intervention designed to reduce alcohol use and related problems to an enhanced standard care condition (standard care plus family assessment).

The targeted population is underage drinkers (13-17 years old) who have been treated in an Emergency Department following an alcohol-related event. It is important to intervene with this population because alcohol-involved adolescents may be at higher risk for having continuing alcohol problems (Fillmore, 1988; Zucker, in press). The intervention is conceptualized as using a "teachable moment" (i.e., shortly after a salient event) to increase family interest in reducing harmful drinking. The experimental intervention integrates an individual Motivational Interview (MI) for the adolescent, based on our research group's prior work with this intervention, with a brief family intervention, the Family Check-Up (Dishion & Kavanagh, 2003).

The experimental condition will be compared to standard care plus family assessment. This design allows us to test the added benefit of the brief family intervention compared to the benefits often derived from assessment without added treatment. Follow-up interviews will be conducted at 3, 6, and 12 months after the baseline intervention to assess outcome. The specific aims of this proposal are to test the effectiveness of the experimental intervention in reducing alcohol-related problems, alcohol consumption, and other behavior problems compared to the enhanced standard care condition. Second, we will examine whether depressed mood and behavior problems at baseline moderate the effects of the treatment conditions. We will also test whether individual factors (motivation to change behavior) and environmental factors (parent/family influence and peer influence) mediate the relation between the treatment condition and outcomes.

Inclusion criteria

• Child aged 13-17 years
• Receiving treatment at the approved medical Emergency Department
• Child living in a home with at least one parent or legal guardian

Exclusion criteria

• Children who are suicidal, in police custody, not alert/oriented, non-English speaking, in severe pain, or who have sustained severe trauma
• Children with a history of prior substance abuse treatment