Funding Source and Project Period: NIDA; 2010 - 2013

Key HIV Center Personnel:

Principal Investigator: Milton Wainberg, M.D.

Co-Investigators: Katherine Elkington, Ph.D., Susan Tross, Ph.D.

Project Overview

The rates of HIV/STI sexual risk behaviors among adolescents with substance use disorders (SUD) are significantly higher compared with youth without SUD, yet HIV/STI sexual risk reduction is not regularly implemented within adolescent SUD treatment programs; current state policies neither require providers in clinics delivering substance use treatment to offer HIV/STI sexual risk reduction nor offer providers tools or training for HIV/STI prevention. To address this urgent public health priority and the lack of efficacious family-based HIV/STI sexual risk reduction programs for youth with SUD in treatment, this project is:

a) developing a manualized family-based sexual risk reduction intervention that builds the capacity of outpatient clinics to address adolescent sexuality more systematically, to promote youth safer sex practices, and to reduce youth HIV/STI sexual risk behaviors; and

b) pilot test the intervention to examine the intervention’s feasibility and
acceptability within clinics and to determine key research parameters in preparation for a randomized controlled trial (RCT).

The intervention development process is using a Community Based Participatory
Research model of adaptation and development that has been successfully implemented by the PI in other settings. We will conduct formative work to guide adaptation of a multi-family group HIV/STI sexual risk reduction intervention that has demonstrated efficacy with youth (13-18 years), who have non-SUD psychiatric disorders.

This formative work will leverage the research sample of CASALEAP, an ongoing NIDA-funded, naturalistic study of the effectiveness of outpatient SUD treatment for
adolescent. We will then pilot-test the resulting new manualized intervention (STYLEnS: STYLE and Substance) with a sample of male and female adolescents age 13-18 years (n=60) with SUD who are in treatment in mental health outpatient treatment programs.