Testing an Online Intervention to Improve Parents' Communication With Gay and Bisexual Sons About Sex and HIV (PATHS)

George Washington University (GW)

Status: Completed

Conditions: HIV Infections

Treatments: Behavioral: PATHS Sexual Communication Toolkit; Behavioral: Parent Support Film

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT04018573

R34MH112445 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

MH112445

Details and patient eligibility

About

Young men who have sex with men (MSM) are at high risk for HIV infection in the United States, representing 80% of all infections among youth ages 14-24, and 92% of infections among boys ages 14-19. Despite these risks, the field has not even one HIV prevention intervention shown to be effective in decreasing sexual risks or increasing HIV testing among adolescent MSM (AMSM). Historically, reaching AMSM for HIV prevention has been challenging, given their relative geographic isolation and lack of access to traditional gay congregating spaces (e.g., bars and many gay-related social networking websites). However, the investigators have developed a novel online platform for delivering interventions to parents of LGB youth that currently sees thousands of visitors each year. HIV prevention advocates have identified parents of AMSM as an untapped resource for reducing HIV risk in this population. Parent-child communication about sex has well-demonstrated associations with adolescent risk behaviors, and interventions with parents of heterosexual youth have been shown to be effective in increasing parent-adolescent communication, and thereby, reducing adolescent health risks. Thus, the aim of the proposed study is to pilot test the efficacy of an online intervention to increase and improve parent communication with AMSM about sexuality and HIV, with the ultimate goal of decreasing adolescent sexual risk and increasing HIV testing. This will be achieved by randomizing parents who come to seek resources on the investigators' existing website to receive either (a) a film designed to support parents of LGB youth, or (b) that film + the online communication intervention materials, and then gathering longitudinal, online data from parents in both study arms and their AMSM sons over a 2-4 month period. It is hypothesized that parents in the intervention group will increase their communication with their sons about HIV and condoms.

Enrollment: 61 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• Parent or legal guardian of a child with all of the following characteristics:

  1. cisgender male

  2. age 14-22

  3. self-identify as gay or bisexual

  4. lives in the same house with parent at least 2 days per week.

     Exclusion Criteria:

• Child with known HIV infection

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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61 participants in 2 patient groups

Parent Support Film

Active Comparator group

Description:

Parents will watch Lead with Love, a 35-minute documentary style film designed to provide support, information, and behavioral guidance to parents with a lesbian, gay, or bisexual child. One month later, parents will look over material that reviews the major points of the film. All of this material is presented online via our webapp.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Parent Support Film

Parent Support Film + PATHS Sexual Communication Toolkit

Experimental group

Description:

Parents in this arm will have the option of watching Lead with Love, and then will engage with our parent toolkit, designed to increase the frequency and quality of parent-child communication about HIV and condoms. One month later, parents will engage with booster content, customized to address their self-reported barriers to communicating with their sons. All of this material is presented online via our webapp.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Parent Support Film

Behavioral: PATHS Sexual Communication Toolkit