Project e-PBI+ - Parent Intervention to Reduce College Student Drinking and Cannabis Use

Overview

College students' risky drinking and cannabis use are major public health problems. The harms associated with risky drinking have been well-documented (such as deaths, blackouts, injuries, assaults, arrests, sexual consequences, academic consequences). Both college health administrators and parents have requested electronic parent-based interventions (e-PBIs) with additional content on cannabis. Parents have demonstrated ample motivation to communicate with their teens. The proposed research will attempt to enhance an existing effective e-PBI, curb the alarming trends noted in the literature, and move the field forward by conducting a randomized controlled trial testing a modified version of the e-PBI that includes updated content including the most up-to-date scientific information from cannabis studies (e-PBI+).

College is a high-risk window for alcohol and cannabis use, with almost 80% of college students reporting consuming alcohol in the past year and more than 1 in 3 reporting heavy episodic drinking in the past month. A recent National College Health survey indicated that about 30% of students reported using cannabis weekly or more often. This is concerning considering present-day cannabis has an increased potency with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) levels in cannabis in the US increasing over 200% since 1990. Additionally, availability has increased due to increased legalization in the US. Cannabis use is associated with a number of negative outcomes such as impaired memory and concentration, reduced impulse control, poor class attendance and lower academic performance, increased anxiety/depression, and increased impaired driving. Additionally, a number of studies have shown an increase in co-use of alcohol and cannabis (use of both substances in the same day) or simultaneously so their effects overlap, and studies show that these combined behaviors results in much greater harm than alcohol-only use. The proposed research will attempt to curb the alarming trends associated with alcohol and cannabis use by conducting a randomized controlled trial testing a modified version of the Turrisi and associates efficacious brief Parent-Based Intervention (e-PBI) that includes additional data-driven content for parents to have broader discussions about cannabis use (e-PBI+). The design is a 3-arm (e-PBI+, e-PBI, Attention-Matched control) randomized controlled trial with 4 waves of data collection. The study will enroll an ethnically diverse sample of 900 parent-student dyads (N at final follow-up). Students will complete assessments of all the primary, secondary, and tertiary outcomes at five times: pre-intervention baseline, and 3-month, 6-month, and 9-month follow-ups as well as provide urine samples at 6-month to corroborate cannabis use reported on the timeline followback. Parents will complete a baseline and 3-month follow-up survey.