Automating Peer Learning to Reduce Alcohol Use and Related Deviant Behavior in Secondary School

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

Get a concise snapshot of the trial, including recruitment status, study phase, enrollment targets, and key timeline milestones.

Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

924 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2021-09-01

Study Completion Date

2022-08-31

Brief Summary

Review the sponsor-provided synopsis that highlights what the study is about and why it is being conducted.

Deviant peer affiliation is one of the most important predictors of alcohol use in adolescence. These affiliations arise when socially marginalized youth self-aggregate and reinforce alcohol use and other deviant activity (i.e., "deviant peer clustering"). Existing efficacious school-based prevention programs generally have small effects and can be difficult to disseminate with fidelity and challenging to sustain due to complex designs and significant time-and-money expenditures required for materials and training. Existing school-based prevention programs have not provided compelling value to schools, which has limited their dissemination. The investigators found significantly lower rates of deviant peer affiliation and alcohol/tobacco use and moderate-to-strong suppressive effects on bullying, victimization, stress, and emotional problems, and strong positive effects on student engagement, achievement, and social-emotional skills in peer-learning intervention schools compared to control schools. However, teachers in intervention schools faced challenges implementing peer learning, including: (1) design fidelity: ensuring that peer learning provided the most positive student experience by including all the essential design elements; and, (2) instructional support: managing the flow and timing of the activities to complete the lesson on time while dealing with unexpected disruptions. Investigators developed an initial version of a mobile software application (PeerLearning.net) that provided easy-to-use organizational templates with workflow support that teachers used to automate the design and delivery of peer learning lessons. In this cluster randomized trial of the app, the investigators will use a sample of middle and high schools and conduct pre/post student assessments of peer relations, alcohol/drug use, antisocial/prosocial behavior, and social-emotional skills. They will also collect information on stress, bullying/victimization and related outcomes, including sleep quality and mental health. Investigators will also collect data on the frequency of lesson delivery with the app by teacher and school to assess dosage, which will be incorporated into our analyses. The investigators hypothesize that use of PeerLearning.net will have significant suppressive effects on alcohol use and related outcomes (i.e., tobacco/marijuana use, antisocial behavior, bullying, emotional problems) and promote increased levels of social-emotional skills and prosocial behavior. The investigators hypothesize that these results will be moderated by dosage (i.e., use of the app), such that greater usage yields larger effects.

Related Clinical Trials

Explore similar clinical trials based on study characteristics and research focus.

Reducing Hazardous Alcohol Use in Social Networks Using Targeted Intervention

NCT02895984

Alcohol Consumption Alcohol Abuse

COMPLETED NA

Leveraging Evidence to Activate Parents

NCT04779229

Substance Use

COMPLETED NA

A Community-Based Strategy for Preventing Underage Drinking

NCT02448134

Alcohol Abuse

COMPLETED NA

Brief Interventions With Text Messaging to Reduce Adolescent Alcohol and Marijuana Use

NCT03401333

Alcohol Drinking Marijuana

COMPLETED NA

Peer-led Brief Alcohol Intervention for College Student Drinkers in Spain

NCT05437484

Peer Group Motivational Interviewing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy +1 more

COMPLETED NA

Detailed Description

Dive into the extended narrative that explains the scientific background, objectives, and procedures in greater depth.

Schools (N = 12) will be randomly assigned to intervention or waitlist control conditions, and data will be collected immediately in the fall (i.e., baseline measure) and in the spring, approximately 6 months later (i.e., post-treatment assessment). Overall, the investigators will have two assessment points. Data will be collected from teachers and students via on-line surveys (i.e., Qualtrics) and through observations; see below on the Measures. Intervention schools will receive training and access to the PeerLearning.net app immediately, whereas control schools will receive access in the spring after the second wave of data collection is completed.

The investigators hypothesize that usage of PeerLearning.net will promote increasing levels of prosocial behavior and have a significant suppressive effects on alcohol use and related outcomes (i.e., tobacco/marijuana use, antisocial behavior, bullying/victimization, mental health problems) and salutary effects on social-emotional skills, peer relations, and sleep quality. The investigators hypothesize that there will be effects of dosage (i.e., usage of the app). Finally, the investigators will examine differences in program effects by sex (gender) and ethnicity, which the investigators expect to be small or nonexistent.

Participants will include both teachers and students at 12 middle and high schools, cluster randomized to intervention vs. waitlist control. Teachers will use PeerLearning.net to design and deliver small-group peer learning lessons during the school year. The investigators will not exclude any participant based upon race/ethnicity, gender, or disability. Participating schools, teachers, and students will be rewarded.

Conditions

See the medical conditions and disease areas that this research is targeting or investigating.

Substance Use Stress Relation, Interpersonal Bullying Victimisation Mental Health Issue Sleep, Inadequate Social Skills

Study Design

Understand how the trial is structured, including allocation methods, masking strategies, primary purpose, and other design elements.

Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

This is a cluster randomized trial, where assignment to condition occurs at the school level. Randomization of schools to condition (intervention vs. control) occurs at the beginning of the study and there is no cross-over.

Primary Study Purpose

PREVENTION

Blinding Strategy

SINGLE

Outcome Assessors

Study Groups

Review each arm or cohort in the study, along with the interventions and objectives associated with them.

Intervention (access to PeerLearning.net)

Teachers and students in intervention schools will be given access to PeerLearning.net software for the purposes of instruction for the 2021-2022 school year.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

PeerLearning.net

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

PeerLearning.net is a software package that supports teachers in designing and delivering peer learning lessons, either in-person or remotely while students are learning at home.

Peer learning is an instructional technique that puts students in groups under conditions of positive interdependence, where they are incentivized to work together and promote the success of one another. Peer Learning lessons also ensure individual accountability and explicitly observe for and reward specific group social skills (e.g., encouraging participation, checking for understanding). Peer Learning also includes group processing after the lesson is completed so that the students in the groups have an opportunity to discuss what they did well and what could use improvement; they also have the opportunity to provide positive reinforcement to one another for contributing to the success of the group.

Passive Control (no intervention)

Teachers and students in control schools will conduct instruction as usual without PeerLearning.net.

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Learn about the drugs, procedures, or behavioral strategies being tested and how they are applied within this trial.

PeerLearning.net

PeerLearning.net is a software package that supports teachers in designing and delivering peer learning lessons, either in-person or remotely while students are learning at home.

Peer learning is an instructional technique that puts students in groups under conditions of positive interdependence, where they are incentivized to work together and promote the success of one another. Peer Learning lessons also ensure individual accountability and explicitly observe for and reward specific group social skills (e.g., encouraging participation, checking for understanding). Peer Learning also includes group processing after the lesson is completed so that the students in the groups have an opportunity to discuss what they did well and what could use improvement; they also have the opportunity to provide positive reinforcement to one another for contributing to the success of the group.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL