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

University of Washington

Status: Begins enrollment in 5 months

Conditions: Couples; Cannabis Use; Alcohol Drinking

Treatments: Behavioral: Online, couples-based intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT06422299

K23AA031034-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

STUDY00017992

Details and patient eligibility

About

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.

Enrollment: 60 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 29 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

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

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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60 participants in 2 patient groups

Online, couples-based intervention

Experimental group

Description:

A novel, brief online intervention for young adults community couples who engage in alcohol and cannabis co-use.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Online, couples-based intervention

Assessment-only control

No Intervention group

Description:

Couples in the control condition will not receive an intervention.