Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Feb 7, 2022
Open Peer Review Period: Feb 7, 2022 - Feb 10, 2022
Date Accepted: Feb 24, 2022
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Investigating Why and How Young Adults Utilize Protective Behavioral Strategies for Alcohol and Marijuana Use: Protocol for Developing a Randomized Controlled Trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
Young adulthood is associated with increased alcohol and marijuana use compared to other developmental periods [1]. Alcohol and marijuana use place individuals at high risk for acute and long-term negative consequences [2,3]. Despite the relatively large cross-sectional and longitudinal literature on protective behavioral strategies (PBS; behaviors that individuals can use to limit consequences and/or reduce substance use) [4,5], little is known about why young adults choose to use PBS on specific occasions or why young adults might use PBS differently across occasions (ie, quality and consistency). There is significant room for improvement in the conceptualization, application, and understanding of PBS.
Objective:
This study aims to develop a novel online and text message (TM) brief intervention, with input from young adults who use alcohol and marijuana, that addresses the extent to which motivations for PBS use and non-use (marijuana or alcohol) and quality of PBS use (degree of effectiveness or degree of implementation) differ when using alcohol alone versus concurrently or simultaneously with marijuana.
Methods:
This research will be conducted in two phases. Phase 1 will involve online focus groups (N=100) and cognitive interviews (N=10) to determine why young adults (ages 18-24) use or do not use specific PBS related to alcohol and/or marijuana use and to elicit feedback on ways in which motivations and quality of PBS could be incorporated into an online and TM PBS intervention as well as elicit feedback on developed intervention material. In Phase 2, young adults (N=200; ages 18-24), who typically use alcohol and marijuana at least two days per week, will be randomized to either the intervention or wait-list control. The intervention is a brief interactive online intervention focusing on self-selected alcohol and marijuana PBS messages and motives for using alcohol- and marijuana-related PBS and includes intervention content delivered via TMs three days a week (random day, Friday, Saturday) over eight consecutive weeks. All participants will report on PBS use, motivations for PBS use (and non-use), quality of PBS use, and alcohol and marijuana use in morning surveys timed to occur the day after the intervention TMs for those in the intervention group.
Results:
Recruitment and enrollment for Phase 1 will begin in January, 2022. Recruitment for Phase 2 is anticipated to begin in November, 2022. Upon completion of the Phase 2 pilot, we will examine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effect sizes of the newly developed brief online and TM intervention.
Conclusions:
This research will provide an in-depth understanding of young adults’ PBS use and has potential to develop a more efficacious intervention for these co-occurring or simultaneous alcohol and marijuana behaviors. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04978129; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04978129
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Copyright
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