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Extension and Online Adaptation of the FITSTART parent-based intervention to reduce drinking among first-year students

Award Number: R34AA026422
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON ALCOHOL ABUSE AND ALCOHOLISM
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

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Project Summary The proposed project seeks to adapt, optimize, and extend our successful brief parent-based intervention (PBI). While previous PBIs have focused solely on giving parents information about how to communicate with teens, the FITSTART intervention was designed based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to motivate parents to engage with the information and apply it to their communication with their teens. Delivered to groups of parents during summer orientation sessions, FITSTART included a live social norms intervention to correct perceptions about how often other parents communicate with their students, how approving other parents are of underage drinking, and how often students will likely drink in college. Consistent with the TPB, we also presented information designed to change parents' attitudes about college alcohol use. This novel approach demonstrated robust short-term effects during students' first month on campus, reducing weekly drinks, the likelihood that non-drinking students would initiate alcohol use, and the likelihood that those already drinking would engage in heavy episodic drinking. However, the effects dissipated by the second semester and the live small-group format limits the extent to which FITSTART can be easily disseminated to parents nationwide. The current 3-year project will adapt FITSTART to create FITSTART+. We will employ technology we have developed over the past two years informed by the literature on virtual co-presence—a phenomenon by which persons inhabiting a shared online space can feel a sense of community—to create an online version of FITSTART that maintains the benefits of the live program while increasing the reach and scope of the intervention substantially. In Phase I we will employ Participatory Design Methods (PDM) to allow approximately 680 parents to help design the intervention's interface and content themselves through focus groups, surveys, and PDM exercises. Simultaneously we will work with a web designer and a New York Times bestselling author to create and adjust the online intervention platform and content based on feedback from parents. Then, in Phase II we will conduct a feasibility and efficacy trial of the final FITSTART+ program with a sample of 600 parent-student dyads. After students complete a baseline survey during July prior to their arrival on campus, parents will be randomized to FITSTART+ or a control program that corrects norms related to general college health behaviors rather than alcohol use. Importantly, this will test feasibility, not just efficacy. Thus, the program will be marketed to parents as it would be in a “real world” dissemination (i.e., parents will be told the program is being offered by the university for free rather than being told it is part of a research study). Students will complete follow-up surveys during the Fall and at the end of the Spring semester to assess short- and long-term alcohol use and consequences. If pilot results are promising, Parent FITSTART+ will be well-positioned for a large scale, multi-site R01 proposal to evaluate the efficacy of this cost-effective and easily-disseminated parent intervention both alone and in conjunction with existing student interventions.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2023	2020	LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY	1 LMU DR	LOS ANGELES	CA	90045	LOS ANGELES	USA	Alcohol Research Programs	000	3	2/6/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2020 ( Subtotal = $134,906 )
2020	2020	LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY	1 LMU DR UHALL STE 4900	LOS ANGELES	CA	90045	LOS ANGELES	USA	Alcohol Research Programs	000	3	8/12/2020	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$134,906
														Subtotal = $134,906

Issue Date FY: 2019 ( Subtotal = $206,856 )
2019	2019	LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY	1 LMU DR UHALL STE 4900	LOS ANGELES	CA	90045	LOS ANGELES	USA	Alcohol Research Programs	000	2	8/28/2019	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$206,856
														Subtotal = $206,856

Issue Date FY: 2018 ( Subtotal = $278,806 )
2018	2018	LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY	1 LMU DR UHALL STE 4900	LOS ANGELES	CA	90045	LOS ANGELES	USA	Alcohol Research Programs	000	1	9/17/2018	NEW	$278,806
														Subtotal = $278,806

Grand Total All Awards = $620,568

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Extension and Online Adaptation of the FITSTART parent-based intervention to reduce drinking among first-year students

Award Number: R34AA026422

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON ALCOHOL ABUSE AND ALCOHOLISM

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

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