Can Family-Centered Prevention Programming Reduce Neuroimmune Vulnerabilities for Drug Use and Cardiometabolic Risk Among African American Adolescents? A Randomized Prevention Trial
University of Georgia
Summary
The Health and Resilience Project (HARP): Foundations is investigating the efficacy of the Strong African American Families (SAAF) intervention in promoting the health and well being of African American adolescents. Youth age 10-13 and their primary caregivers are randomly assigned to receive SAAF or to a control group. Participants complete baseline and follow-up measures regarding vulnerability to substance use based on a neuroimmune model of stress coping.
Description
During childhood and adolescence, family relationships play critical roles in regulating physiological stress reactions. This protects the developing brain from the potentially deleterious effects of stress hormones and neurochemicals. In a series of proof-of-principle studies, the investigators studied the potential for the Strong African American Families (SAAF) drug use prevention program delivered when youth were age 11 to protect participants from the consequences of social adversity when they were transitioning to adulthood (ages 19-25). Effects were detected on a range of outcomes assoc…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 10–13 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria: Youth: * Self reported African American or Black; * Age 10-13 Parents: * Primary caregiver for youth, * Resides in same household as youth. Exclusion Criteria: Youth : * Contraindications for MRI scanning (e.g., metal in body, traumatic brain injury, claustrophobia, pregnancy), * Youth with chronic illnesses or medication regimens that would affect inflammatory panels (e.g., diabetes, congenital heart disease, asthma, cancers). Parent: * Conditions (e.g., severe disability, psychoses) that would prevent participation in the SAAF intervention or completing self-repo…
Interventions
- BehavioralSAAF
A 7 session online intervention designed to augment protective processes associated with deterrence of substance use
- OtherReceipt of parenting book
Parents will receive a copy of the book, Parenting for Liberation: A Guide for Raising Black Children
Location
- Center for Family ResearchAthens, Georgia