Protecting Allies in Risky Situations (PAIRS)

University at Buffalo (UB)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Sexual Assault; Behavioral Changes; College Drinking

Treatments: Behavioral: Friend-Based Motivational Interview

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT04691492

R34AA027046 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

The current project will provide testing of a friend-based motivational interview (FMI) designed to reduce sexual assault risk. The study will address if the intervention minimizes the impact of alcohol on helping behavior, test whether drinking reduces intervention efficacy, and examine potential iatrogenic effects of the intervention.

Full description

The objective of the proposed study is to develop an innovative, friend-based motivational interview (FMI) that encourages and prepares friends to reduce sexual assault (SA) risk. Delivered to pairs of friends (dyads), the FMI will be designed to foster collaborative efforts to increase readiness for, and decrease barriers to helping behavior, and to teach and plan together for assault prevention skills. As the role of alcohol has been under-addressed in SA prevention efforts, the FMI also will explicitly attend to how intoxication may serve as a barrier to friend intervention, and strategies for overcoming this barrier. The completion of this project's aims will yield a novel intervention that capitalizes on the natural resource of women's friendships to decrease risk for sexual assault - a pervasive public health problem affecting a substantial portion of young adult women in the U.S.

Twenty-four friend dyads will participate in the friend-based motivational interview (FMI) along with 24 wait-list control dyads (total of 48 dyads). The study will compare groups on outcomes at post-intervention and at bi-weekly 3 month follow-ups, and also examine within participant change. The study will focus on whether effects are in the expected direction and whether the strength of effect sizes are of practical magnitude. It is expected that participants receiving the FMI will demonstrate significant increases in readiness, and engagement in friend assault prevention behavioral skills (FAPBs), and demonstrate decreases in perceived barriers, at post-intervention and over the 3-month follow-up. Follow-up data will be utilized to provide a rich description of the role of alcohol in implementing FAPBs, and whether the FMI reduces the impact of alcohol use. In exploratory analyses, it will be examined whether the intervention may be associated with decreased assault risk, as well as decreased drinking.

Enrollment: 108 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18 to 24 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Female dyads who go out together at least once a week
• Undergraduates enrolled in a 4-year college or university
• Meet heavy episodic drinking (HED) criteria, 4 or more drinks in a single sitting, 2 or more times monthly

Exclusion criteria

Not Applicable

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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108 participants in 2 patient groups

Friends-Based Motivational Interview (FMI) Group

Experimental group

Description:

Will participate in the Friends-Based Motivational Interview (FMI) program.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Friend-Based Motivational Interview

Wait List Control

No Intervention group

Description:

The Wait List Control group will also be offered to participate in the Friends-Based Motivational Interview Program but at a deferred date (12 weeks later).