Developing and Testing an Online Intervention for Alcohol and Cannabis Misuse and Healthy Relationship Skills Among Young Adult Couples

N/ANot Yet RecruitingNCT06422299

University of Washington60 enrolled

Overview

The goal of this clinical trial is to develop and test a brief online intervention to reduce alcohol and cannabis misuse and improve healthy relationship skills among young adult couples. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Will the intervention be feasible and acceptable to young adult couples? * Will the intervention demonstrate initial efficacy in reducing risky substance use and increasing relationship functioning? Eligible couples will complete a virtual baseline session and be randomized to intervention condition (online intervention with 3-5 weeks of self-paced modules) or control condition (no intervention). Couples will complete two follow-up surveys (post-assessment - approximately 5 weeks after baseline, 3-month). Couples in the control condition will be offered the intervention after 3-month follow-up. Researchers will compare intervention and control groups to see if there there is a difference between the groups on substance misuse and relationship functioning at post-assessment and 3-month follow-up.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Alcohol Drinking Cannabis Use Couples

Interventions

Online, couples-based interventionBEHAVIORAL

During Phase 1 of the present study, the intervention will be iteratively developed using a rigorous, user-centered design approach through integration of knowledge gained from Phase 1 dyadic analyses and qualitative interviews, and existing gold-standard treatments for substance use among couples, including Integrative Behavioral Couples Therapy (IBCT; Christensen \& Doss, 2016) and Behavioral Couples Therapy for Alcohol (ABCT; McCrady et al, 1995) and substance use brief interventions for young adults (Halladay, et al., 2019; Tanner-Smith et al., 2015).

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 YearsMax age: 29 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Both partners in the couple are 18-29 years old * In a committed romantic relationship (e.g., dating seriously, cohabiting, married) with each other for at least 3 months * Face-to-face contact their partner at least 5 days per week * Live in Washington State * Have a valid email address and access to a cell phone * Report alcohol and cannabis co-use at least three times in the past month * Willingness to: complete online surveys during the allotted time frames, receive text messages and emails from the project, complete a baseline session, and participate during the same time period as their partner Exclusion Criteria: * Couples who endorse any perpetration or receipt of severe interpersonal aggression during screening will be excluded and provided with resources

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Heavy episodic and high intensity drinking

Alcohol use - number of days in the past month participant engaged in heavy episodic drinking (4+/5+ drinks in one occasion for women/men) and high intensity drinking (8+/10+ drinks in one occasion for women/men)