Strong African American Families STEPS Project

NCT03590132 | Completed Phase 4

• 1 other identifier: UGA045608
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 472
• Locations: 0 countries
• Sites: N/A

Brief Summary

The most common approach to preventing alcohol use involves providing a well-designed program in preadolescence just prior to or upon entering middle school. This approach does not have long-lasting effects or address the risk factors that lead many youth to use alcohol in high school. This study tested a strategy that compares offering effective programs at the transition to middle school and the transition to high school with only offering a program at either one of the transitions or no programs at all.

Conditions

Adolescent Alcohol Use

Keywords

adolescent; alcohol; family-centered prevention; African American

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (3)

• Alcohol use in past 3 months (single item)

  Youth complete this single item from Monitoring the Future Study assessing the frequency of alcohol use in the past 3 months. There is an ordinal response scale ranging from 0 (none) to 6 (30 or more times). Higher response numbers indicate a worse outcome (more alcohol use).

  3 months

• Frequency of cannabis use in the past 3 months (single item)

  Single item from Monitoring the Future Study assessing frequency of marijuana use in the past 3 months. There is an ordinal response scale ranging from 0 (none) to 6 (30 or more times). Higher responses indicate a worse outcome (more marijuana use in the past 3 months).

  3 months

• Monitoring the Future: Total substance use (summative index of use of alcohol, cannabis, and nicotine)

  Youth complete 3 single items from the Monitoring the Future study indexing the frequency of their use of alcohol, cannabis, and nicotine in past 3 months. There is an ordinal response scale ranging from 0 (none) to 6 (30 or more times) for each item. The three items are summed yielding a scale ranging from 0-18. Higher response numbers indicate a worse outcome (more substance use).

  3 months

Secondary Outcomes (3)

• Center for Epidemiological studies-Depression scale

  Past 7 days

• The National Survey of Adolescents Conduct Problems Subscale

  past 3 months

• Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale-Child Version

  past 7 days

Study Arms (4)

SAAF

EXPERIMENTAL

participants in this arm receive the SAAF intervention at age 11-12.

Behavioral: Strong African American Families Program

SAAF-T

EXPERIMENTAL

participants in this arm receive the SAAF-Teen intervention at age 14-15.

Behavioral: Strong African American Families--Teen Program

SAAF SAAF-T

EXPERIMENTAL

participants in this arm receive SAAF at age 11-12 and later receive SAAF-Teen at age 14-15

Behavioral: Strong African American Families Program; Behavioral: Strong African American Families--Teen Program

Control

NO INTERVENTION

These participants receive no interventions.

Interventions

Strong African American Families Program BEHAVIORAL

SAAF is a 7 session family skills training program

Also known as: SAAF

SAAF; SAAF SAAF-T

Strong African American Families--Teen Program BEHAVIORAL

SAAF-T is a 5 session family skills training program

Also known as: SAAF--T

SAAF SAAF-T; SAAF-T

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 11 Years - 13 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• self reported African American
• th grade

You may not qualify if:

• unable to attend a family-centered prevention intervention due to incapacitation of youth
• unable to attend a family-centered prevention intervention due to incapacitation of youth

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Georgia: lead

Related Publications (2)

• Kogan SM, Reck AJ, Tiwari B, Thapha JR, Carter S, Oshri A, Koss K, Ahn SJ, Beach S, Fisher S, Smith E, Zhang L. Family-Centered Prevention Attenuates the Association Between Structural Racism Risk and Black Adolescents' Low Self-regulation and Externalizing Behaviors: Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial. Prev Sci. 2025 Aug;26(6):932-942. doi: 10.1007/s11121-025-01828-5. Epub 2025 Jul 17.

  PMID: 40676489 DERIVED

• Kogan SM, Kwon E, Brody GH, Azarmehr R, Reck AJ, Anderson T, Sperr M. Family-Centered Prevention to Reduce Discrimination-Related Depressive Symptoms Among Black Adolescents: Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2023 Nov 1;6(11):e2340567. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.40567.

  PMID: 37910105 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Underage Drinking

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Adolescent Behavior; Behavior; Alcohol Drinking; Drinking Behavior

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: phase 4
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: CARE PROVIDER, OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Masking Details: Neither the interventionists or the assessors were given information on participants' treatment group; however there is only partial masking for providers given that attendance in the program suggests some information on experimental group.
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: FACTORIAL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Professor

Model Details: A 4 arm trial, participants receive either a preadolescent intervention only, a mid-adolescent intervention only, both preadolescent and mid-adolescent intervention, or no intervention

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: June 12, 2018
• First Posted: July 18, 2018
• Study Start: December 10, 2012
• Primary Completion: November 30, 2018
• Study Completion: November 30, 2018
• Last Updated: June 19, 2019

Record last verified: 2019-06

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share