Adapting Personality-Targeted Interventions for Reducing Substance Misuse and Related Outcomes in Youth in Youth Protection Services

Plain-language summary

Substance use problems are major concern in adolescents involved in Youth Protection Services. However, there is an enormous gap between the needs and availability of interventions for youth with substance use problems in the system. The present study will examine the feasibility and proof-of-concept of implementing an evidence-based, personality-targeted drug and alcohol prevention programme for high-risk adolescents (i.e., Preventure programme) receiving services from Youth Protection Services. Our goal is to examine the effects of these interventions on reducing rates of substance use outcomes, depression symptoms, and self-reported anxiety sensitivity and impulsivity at 3- and 6-month post-intervention. These primary outcomes were selected based on previous Preventure trials with the community samples, that indicated these factors largely accounted for the long-term intervention effects on improving substance use outcomes. The study will be conducted at Batshaw Youth and Family Centres, which provide psychosocial, rehabilitation and social integration services and services related to child placement and adoption to English-speaking youth from all regions of Quebec. Adolescents receiving services from Batshaw centres (N = 100, aged 14 and above) will be invited to participate in the study. All interested adolescents will be invited to attend one assessment session with the research team. Participants who score high on one of subscales of Substance Use Risk Profile Scale (SURPS) (i.e., high-risk adolescents) will be invited to participate in two 90-minute group-based intervention sessions, which target their dominant personality profile. Sessions will be cognitive-behavioural in nature and are designed to help youth understand the target personality trait and develop adaptive coping strategies for managing that trait using motivational and cognitive restructuring techniques. The primary outcomes will be measured at baseline before receiving the interventions and then with 3-month and 6-month intervals after receiving the interventions to test whether these outcomes are significantly reduced after receiving the interventions. The results of this study will be used to plan the future directions of personality-targeted interventions for youth involved in Youth Protection Services.

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Trial details