Feasibility of a Text Message-Based Alcohol Prevention Intervention for Parents of Rising Middle School Students:...

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Adolescent Health
• Digital Health Interventions

Background:

• Early-onset alcohol use (EOAU), before age 14, is a significant risk factor for later alcohol problems.
• Parental provision of alcohol is a common pathway to EOAU, highlighting the need for family-based prevention.
• Scalable interventions to involve parents in preventing EOAU are limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the feasibility of the Better-Informed Parents Keeping Adolescents Safe From Alcohol (BIPAS Alcohol) digital intervention.
• To assess parental acceptability, integration, demand, and adaptation of the BIPAS Alcohol program.

Main Methods:

• A 3-month SMS text messaging curriculum and multimedia website intervention was delivered to 132 US parents of 10- to 12-year-olds.
• Feasibility was evaluated using parent surveys assessing acceptability, integration, demand, and adaptation.
• A subset of parents (n=11) participated in interviews to further explore survey findings.

Main Results:

• Parents reported high acceptability, with over 95% finding the intervention attention-holding, useful, and helpful in reducing underage drinking risks.
• A majority of parents intended to integrate the intervention into family life and share content.
• Parents favored SMS text messages for their brevity, with some adapting content for direct use with children.

Conclusions:

• The digital family-based BIPAS Alcohol intervention is feasible for preventing early-onset alcohol use.
• The intervention's high acceptability and positive parent feedback support further evaluation.
• Additional research in a larger-scale trial is warranted to assess the intervention's effectiveness across a broader population.