Assessing the Feasibility and Acceptability of a Novel Parent-Based Intervention for Mitigating Social Media...

Parent-based interventions (PBIs) are efficacious in addressing adolescent alcohol use. One major limitation of PBIs is that they do not consider the role of social media on adolescent alcohol use. The present study aimed to establish process and management feasibility and acceptability of an interactive PBI that includes the role of social media in association with adolescent alcohol use. Parent-adolescent dyads (N = 101; age 15-20) were either randomly assigned to the novel PBI or treatment as usual. All participants completed baseline, 1-month, and 6-month surveys. Process feasibility was high as evidenced by ability to successfully recruit and enroll dyads and high retention rates (over 80% at 6-month follow up for both parents and adolescents). Among those who received the PBI, management feasibility was high with a range of 0-41 PBI visits. The PBI was overwhelmingly acceptable with 90% and 96% of parents and adolescents assigned to receive the PBI, respectively, recommending other families participate. Further, among those assigned to PBI, 84% and 77% of parents and adolescents, respectively, indicated they would participate again outside of a paid study. In addition, 80% of parents agreed or strongly agreed that the program was useful, relevant, and helped them communicate with their adolescents. Additional metrics of acceptability were also high. Preliminary feasibility and acceptability results are promising and suggest the need for fully-powered trials to test the efficacy of the social media and alcohol PBI.