Project OPTIONS (COMPLETED)
Project OPTIONS was a 4-year National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA; 2R01AA12171-11A1)-funded research project designed to evaluate the efficacy of a brief intervention for preventing alcohol use problems among adolescents enrolled in Miami-Dade County Public High Schools (MDCPHS). The overall aim of the project was to develop, standardize, and disseminate a low cost, developmentally appropriate, culturally sensitive prevention program for facilitating adolescent efforts for early resolution of their alcohol problems. The program was initially developed by a team of researchers from the University of California San Diego led by Dr. Sandra Brown, who found the program to be effective for preventing alcohol problems among high school students enrolled in the San Diego public school system. This study represented an extension of this work to multiple sites (Portland, OR; Minneapolis, MN; and Miami, FL) to replicate intervention findings and assess generalizability of the standardized intervention protocol. During the course of the project, approximately 480 participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: motivational interviewing (MI) or education only (ED). The group-format program consisted of 6 sessions designed to promote deliberative decision making in alcohol use situations by facilitating discussions related to perceptions of use, use/nonuse expectancies, and management of peer-related alcohol use situations. Participants are assessed immediately before intervention and at 4- and 12-week follow-up contacts.
Principal Investigator (FIU Site): Eric Wagner, Ph.D.
Co-Investigators: Michelle Hospital, Ph.D. & Staci Leon Morris, Psy.D.
Project Coordinator: Eva Wales, M.S. | ewales@fiu.edu | (305) 348-4721
References:
Brown, S.A., Anderson, K.G., Schulte, M.T., Sintov, N.D., & Frissell, K.C. (2005). Facilitating youth self-change through school-based intervention. Addictive Behaviors, 30(9), 1797-1810. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2005.07.003
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