NCT03954535

Preventing Drug Abuse Among Sexual Minority Youth

Preventing Drug Abuse Among Sexual-Minority Youth

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 1,216 (actual)
• Sponsor: Columbia University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 15 Years – 17 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The planned randomized clinical trial will longitudinally test a tailored, web-based drug abuse prevention program with a nationwide sample of 15- to 17-year-old sexual minority youth (youth who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or unsure of their sexual orientation).

Detailed description

The randomized controlled trial will include at least 890 sexual-minority youth from the United States. Study participants will be 15- to 17-year-old youth recruited from Facebook/Instagram. All youth will complete pretest measures online. Intervention-arm youth will then interact with the 9-session program; youth in the control arm will have access to an attention-placebo website. All youth will then complete posttest measures (immediately following intervention completion and estimated to be approximately 5 months after study onset) and 1-, 2-, and 3-year follow-up measures. Across posttest and annual follow-up measurement occasions, data analyses will examine rates of 30-day drug use between study arms. The investigators will also examine intervention effects on mediator variables associated with drug use and assess the extent to which changes in mediator variables explain differences in drug use between arms. Youth assigned to the intervention arm will have access to 9 intervention sessions delivered online. The sessions will be housed on a website with entertainment features youth seek: life hacks, features on LGBTQ leaders, fortunes, horoscopes, inspiring quotes, and health-related resources. To ensure that youths' expectations for study participation are equivalent across arms and to account for the non-active components of the experimental intervention, the investigators designed the attention-placebo arm. Youth assigned to the attention-placebo arm will have access to the website with entertainment features: life hacks, features on LGBTQ leaders, fortunes, horoscopes, inspiring quotes, and health-related resources.

Conditions

• Substance Abuse

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Free2b	The intervention will consist of a website and 9 sessions. The intervention sessions will facilitate youths' acquisition of personal and social cognitive-behavioral skills. The intervention will focus on goal setting, decision making, enhancing self-worth, coping with stress, combating distorted thinking, communication skills, using alcohol and other drugs and a review session. Each session will require approximately 20 minutes and must be finished in a single sitting. Sessions will be delivered on a weekly basis. The website will include entertainment features and resources.
BEHAVIORAL	Attention-Placebo	Access to the website with entertainment features and resources - but no session content.

Timeline

• Start date: 2020-01-15
• Primary completion: 2024-03-30
• Completion: 2024-03-30
• First posted: 2019-05-17
• Last updated: 2025-08-26
• Results posted: 2025-08-26

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States