NCT06861660

Digitally Prompted Parenting: A Text Message Parent-Based Alcohol Intervention for Incoming College Students

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 276 (actual)
• Sponsor: Loyola Marymount University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 17 Years – 20 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) will evaluate both the feasibility and efficacy of Digitally Prompted Parenting (DPP), a text-message based parent intervention (tm-PBI) designed to prevent and reduce alcohol use among first-year college students. In this study, parents of incoming first-year students will receive risk-reducing text messages during the first 10 weeks of the Fall semester, which they can forward to their students. The trial uses a longitudinal design to compare drinking outcomes between students whose parents receive the DPP messages and those whose parents receive an established alcohol PBI (the active control condition). The investigators hypothesize that students in the DPP group will report lower levels of alcohol use and fewer alcohol-related consequences after the intervention compared to those in the active control group.

Conditions

• Underage Drinking

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Digitally Prompted Parenting	Parents will receive an email invitation to sign up for Digitally Prompted Parenting, a text message-delivered PBI. Parents set up an account and input information about themselves and their student, which will customize the text messages they receive. Parents will receive at least two text prompts per week for the first 10 weeks of their student's first semester in college. These texts will (1) prompt parents to call their student to discuss the past week and week ahead, and (2) prompt parents to send an alcohol-specific risk reducing text to their student.
BEHAVIORAL	Active Control	Parents will receive an email that explains the Parent Handbook intervention and includes a link to a website where the Handbook is embedded. They will also receive three booster emails summarizing the key points of the intervention. Parents can review both the Parent Handbook and the booster emails at their own pace.

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-06-27
• Primary completion: 2026-03-16
• Completion: 2026-03-16
• First posted: 2025-03-06
• Last updated: 2026-04-16

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States