Organization-level Youth Engagement Approach for Substance Misuse Prevention

Wake Forest University Health Sciences43 enrolled

Overview

This study will consist of a small pilot Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT). Four prevention organizations will be randomized either to include Youth Engagement in prevention efforts (treatment) or not (control). The study team will attempt to match the treatment and control groups on relevant characteristics such as geographic location (e.g., urban, rural), population served (e.g., church-based, school-based), and/or prior Youth Engagement involvement. The objective of this study is to evaluate the preliminary effectiveness of YE as a prevention strategy for opioid misuse in a small pilot randomized control trial (RCT). This pilot study will examine the effects of the YE prevention strategy on (a) organization-level outcomes, such as perceived value added to prevention programming and (b) individual-level outcomes such as personal skills and attitudes as well as knowledge and attitudes about substances including opioids. Up to 15 leaders/staff and 45 youth/young adults (60 people overall) will be recruited for the study.

Substance misuse is a major public health problem and opioid misuse is an acute problem in rural and high poverty communities. Adolescence and young adulthood is a formative time for positive social development, as young people increase their needs for maturity and autonomy, define their identities, and carve out their roles in society. But many youth and young adults are isolated within communities, feel that they do not matter, and lack meaningful opportunities to engage with society and form positive connections with prosocial institutions. Further, community systems and settings that serve youth and young adults often do not effectively involve them. Engaging youth and young adults in their communities and in the prevention systems targeting substance misuse may prevent the use of substances by targeting two pathways. The first is an individual pathway via bolstering psychosocial development and reducing risks for opioids by providing youth and young adults with meaningful prosocial opportunities to fulfill developmental needs. The second is an environmental pathway via affecting health system and community-based settings through improving prevention efforts targeting young adults. This project tests an organization-level Youth Engagement (YE) approach to improve prevention. Only organizations randomized to treatment will include youth/Young Adult (YA) participants. Youth/YA survey data will be collected at the start of their participation in the YE strategy (pre-YE) and 6 months later (post-YE). At the post-YE the study team will interview a subset of interested YE group participants to qualitatively assess their experiences and to identify, in their own voices, what aspects of YE emerge as important to youth development and their health-related decision-making. The timeframe for this phase will be 12-18 months.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 11 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

INCLUSION CRITERIA: Organizational leaders/staff: * Leaders or staff of community-based prevention organizations based in North Carolina * Organizations are youth/young adult-serving and focused on opioid misuse prevention * Organizations demonstrate readiness, interest, need, and resources to invest in Youth Engagement as part of prevention * Leaders or staff are or would be involved in implementing Youth Engagement strategy at the organization * Leaders or staff are able to speak and read English fluently Youth/young adult participants involved with organizations: * Adolescents and young adults age 11 - 29 * Interested in participating in Youth Engagement with the community organization * Able to speak and read English fluently EXCLUSION CRITERIA: • Organizations already incorporating a high level of Youth Engagement in its prevention work

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Staff Surveys--Youth Engagement (YE) Prevention Programming Value

This outcome will be assessed through a survey measure administered to the organization leaders and staff in the YE intervention organizations only. The survey measures will be on a 1-5 scale with a higher score meaning a higher perceived programming value.

Time frame: Month 6

Perceived Retention of Youth/Young Adults in Youth Engagement (YE) Prevention Programming

This outcome will be assessed through a survey measure on a 1-5 scale administered to the organization leaders and staff in the YE intervention organizations only, with higher scores indicated better retention.

Time frame: Month 6

Perceived Usefulness of Youth Engagement (YE) Prevention

This outcome will be assessed through a survey measure administered to the organization leaders and staff in the YE intervention organizations only. The survey items will ask about perceived usefulness of the YE intervention for youth/young adults, the organization, and the community. Items will be on a 1-5 scale with higher scores indicating higher perceived usefulness.

Time frame: Month 6

Perceived Effectiveness, Quality, Reach, and Usefulness of General Prevention Approaches

This outcome will be assessed through a survey measure administered to the organization leaders and staff in the Youth Engagement (YE) intervention organizations and comparison organizations. The survey measures will be on a 1-5 scale with higher scores indicating higher perceived quality, reach, and usefulness.

Time frame: Month 6

Secondary Outcomes

Youth/Young Adults: Leadership and Communication Skills

This outcome will be assessed through a survey measure administered to young adults involved in the youth engagement (YE) intervention at baseline (pre-YE) and 6 months later (post-YE). The survey measures will be on a 1-5 scale with higher scores indicating greater leadership and communication skills .