RDAR Center applied for its first NIAAA Grant: A Cellphone-Based Intervention to Reduce Alcohol and Drug Use among Youth Experiencing Homelessness
In June 2019, RDAR Center Member Dr. Kimberly Tyler applied to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) for $3.7 million in funding to undertake a 3-phase regional-level study with youth experiencing homelessness. This study would assess the impact of risk and protective behaviors, affect regulation and street experiences on alcohol and drug use among youth (aged 18-24 to better identify key real-time daily risk factors for alcohol and drug use and develop an intervention that is relevant to this vulnerable population), and provide its members with individualized support. The project grows out of Tyler’s prior collaboration with community agencies serving youth who are experiencing homelessness.
Increased cellphone ownership among youth in this population is paired with growth in urban WiFi hotspot coverage to create a public health opportunity that is leveraged in this project. The goal of this project is to identify relationships between youth’s distal, proximal, and real-time daily risk factors to investigate whether youth cope with negative experiences (i.e. street victimization) through risk behaviors (i.e. alcohol and drug use), or through protective behaviors (i.e. engagement with services). This information will be used to develop a new data-driven cellphone based just-in-time personal support intervention (JIT-PSI) to mitigate alcohol and drug use risk among youth experiencing homelessness; JIT-PSI will be evaluated through comparisons with a no-intervention control group. This study will be the first to develop a cellphone-based JIT-PSI aimed at lowering risk for alcohol and drug use among youth experiencing homelessness.
Monday, June 10, 2019 by Elizabeth Dombrowski
