Exploring the role of emotional and behavioral problems in a personality-targeted prevention program for substance use in adolescents and young adults with intellectual disability

Contains fulltext : 228171.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Background: Adolescents and young adults with a mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning (MID-BIF) are at risk for problematic substance use and are more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems than peers without MID-BIF. A personality-targeted prevention program called Take it Personal! effectively reduces substance use in adolescents and young adults with MID-BIF. Aims: The program’s effectiveness was examined on its secondary goal: reducing emotional and behavioral problems. The potentially moderating role of these problems on the program's effectiveness with substance use was also explored. Methods and procedures: Substance use and emotional and behavioral problems were compared between participants in Take it Personal! (n = 34) and those in the control condition (n = 32) in a quasi-experimental pre-posttest study with a three-month follow-up. Effectiveness and moderation were assessed with multilevel models. Outcomes and results: Take it Personal! seems to reduce rule breaking. There were no significant effects on anxiety, withdrawal, and aggression. None of the problem domains moderated the program’s effectiveness on substance use frequency. Conclusions and implications: Take it Personal! may effectively reduce rule breaking. Moreover, adolescent and young adults with different levels of emotional and behavioral problems benefit equally in terms of reduced substance use.10 p

Drinking by parents, siblings, and friends as predictors of regular alcohol use in adolescents and young adults : A longitudinal twin-family study.

Item does not contain fulltext8 p

The role of genes and environment in adolescents' and young adults' alcohol use

Contains fulltext : 73438.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)RU Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, 03 september 2008Promotores : Engels, R.C.M.E., Boomsma, D.I. Co-promotores : Scholte, R.H.J., Willemsen, G.208 p

De prevalentie van middelengebruik bij jongeren met een licht verstandelijke beperking en ernstige gedragsproblemen in een orthopedagogisch behandelcentrum

Contains fulltext : 158055.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)13 p

Evaluating a selective prevention program for substance use and comorbid behavioral problems in adolescents with mild to borderline intellectual disabilities: Study protocol of a randomized controlled trial

Contains fulltext : 143237.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Background: Substance use and abuse is a growing problem among adolescents with mild to borderline intellectual disabilities (ID). Substance use patterns in general population are similar to patterns among non-disabled peers, but substance use has more negative consequences for adolescents with mild to borderline ID, and they are at an increased risk for developing a substance use disorder. Nevertheless, effective and evidence based prevention programs for this groups are lacking. The study described in this protocol tested the effectiveness of a selective intervention aimed at reducing substance use in adolescents with mild to borderline ID and behavioral problems. In the intervention, participants acquire competences to deal with their high-risk personality traits. Methods: A randomized controlled trial will be conducted among 14-21-year old adolescents with mild to borderline ID and behavioral problems admitted to treatment facilities in the Netherlands. Inclusion criteria are previous substance use and personality risk for substance use. Participants will be individually randomized to the intervention (n = 70) or control (n = 70) groups. The intervention group will be exposed to six individual sessions and five group sessions carried out by two qualified trainers over six-week period. Primary outcomes will be the percentage reduction in substance use (for alcohol: percentage decrease of binge drinking, weekly use and problematic use, for cannabis: the percentage decrease of lifetime cannabis use and weekly use and for hard drug: the percentage decrease of lifetime use). Secondary outcomes will be motives for substance use, intention to use, and internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems. All outcome measures will be assessed after two, six, and twelve months after the intervention. Discussion: This study protocol describes the design of an effectiveness study of a selective prevention program for substance use in adolescents with mild to borderline ID and behavioral problems. We expect a significant reduction in alcohol, cannabis and hard drug use among adolescents in the intervention group compared with the control group.7 p

The development of a web-based brief alcohol intervention in reducing heavy drinking among college students: an Intervention Mapping approach

Contains fulltext : 135105.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)In the Netherlands, young adults' drinking practices have become an issue of public concern since their drinking levels are high. Heavy drinking can place young adults at an increased risk for developing short- and long-term health-related problems. Current national alcohol prevention programmes focus mainly on adolescents and their parents and paying less systematic attention to young adults. The present study describes the theory and evidence-based development of a web-based brief alcohol intervention entitled What Do You Drink (WDYD). We applied the Intervention Mapping (IM) protocol to combine theory and evidence in the development and implementation of WDYD. The WDYD intervention aims to detect and reduce heavy drinking of young adults who are willing to decrease their alcohol consumption, preferably below the Dutch guidelines of low-risk drinking. According to the IM protocol, the development of WDYD resulted in a structured intervention. Reducing heavy drinking to low-risk drinking was proposed as the behavioural outcome. Motivational interviewing principles and parts of the I-Change Model were used as methods in the development of WDYD, whereas computer tailoring was selected as main strategy. An effect and a process evaluation of the intervention will be conducted. IM was found to be a practical instrument for developing the WDYD intervention tailored to a specific target population in the area of alcohol prevention.11 p

The mediating role of substance use motives in the relationship between personality dimensions and alcohol and drug use in adolescents and young adults with mild intellectual disabilities

Adolescents and young adults with mild intellectual disabilities or borderline intellectual functioning (MID-BIF) are a high-risk group for developing substance use disorders. The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms that underlie substance use in this particular population. We tested the mediating role of substance use motives in the relationship between personality dimensions and substance use-related outcomes. Self-reported data on substance use risk personality dimensions (i.e., sensation seeking, impulsivity, anxiety sensitivity, and negative thinking), substance use motives (i.e., social, enhancement, coping, and conformity motives), and substance use were obtained from 163 individuals with MID-BIF (mean age 18.9 years). Results show that coping motives played a main role in the associations between personality dimensions and substance use in adolescents and young adults with MID-BIF, with significant relationships between impulsivity and negative thinking and severity of alcohol use or drug use via coping motives. Moreover, findings indicated a relatively high risk for several substance use motives and associated substance use (disorder) in individuals high on impulsivity. Results show significant relationships between impulsivity and severity of alcohol use or drug use via social, enhancement, and coping motives. No mediating associations were found for conformity motives, nor did we find any mediation associations in individuals with high levels of anxiety sensitivity. These insights provide the possibility of tailoring interventions to specific motives that underlie substance use in different types of users with MID-BIF based on personality dimensions

'Take it personal!': Een interventie voor het verminderen van middelengebruik en comorbide gedragsproblemen bij jongeren met een licht verstandelijke beperking

Contains fulltext : 158911.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Jongeren met een licht verstandelijke beperking (LVB) hebben een verhoogd risico op het ontwikkelen van problemen met middelengebruik. Daarnaast zijn de negatieve consequenties van hun gebruik groter dan bij normaal begaafde leeftijdsgenoten. Het is daarom belangrijk om te interveniëren voordat gebruik uit de hand loopt. 'Take it personal!' is gericht op het verminderen van middelengebruik bij jongeren (14 - 21 jaar) met LVB en gedragsproblemen die intra- of extramurale behandeling ontvangen. Deze interventie richt zich op deelnemers met een van de vier persoonlijkheidsprofielen die geassocieerd zijn met een hoger risico op het ontwikkelen van risicovol en problematisch middelengebruik: sensatie zoeken, impulsiviteit, angstgevoeligheid en negatief denken. De interventie combineert cognitieve gedragstherapie, motiverende gespreksvoering en psychomotore therapie en beoogt competenties om met het persoonlijkheidsrisico en daarbij horende motieven om middelen te gebruiken om te gaan. In een pilotstudie met zes deelnemers werd gekeken naar de uitvoerbaarheid, de gebruikersvriendelijkheid en de potentiële effectiviteit van de interventie. Bevindingen laten zien dat de training uitvoerbaar is en dat de jongeren het leuk vinden om de training te volgen. Bovendien rapporteren de jongeren na afloop van de training minder alcohol-, cannabis- en harddrugsgebruik. ‘Take it personal!’ lijkt daarmee een veelbelovend programma voor jongeren met een LVB en (problematisch) middelengebruik.11 p

Using ecological momentary assessment in testing the effectiveness of an alcohol intervention: A two-arm parallel group randomized controlled trial

Contains fulltext : 121853.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Background Alcohol consumption of college students has a fluctuating nature, which might impact the measurement of intervention effects. By using 25 follow-up time-points, this study tested whether intervention effects are robust or might vary over time. Methods Data were used from a two-arm parallel group randomized controlled trial applying ecological momentary assessment (EMA) with 30 data time-points in total. Students between 18 and 24 years old who reported heavy drinking in the past six months and who were ready to change their alcohol consumption were randomly assigned to the experimental (n = 456: web-based brief alcohol intervention) and control condition (n = 451: no intervention). Outcome measures were weekly alcohol consumption, frequency of binge drinking, and heavy drinking status. Results According to the intention-to-treat principle, regression analyses revealed that intervention effects on alcohol consumption varied when exploring multiple follow-up time-points. Intervention effects were found for a) weekly alcohol consumption at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7 weeks follow-up, b) frequency of binge drinking at 1, 2, 7, and 12 weeks follow-up, and c) heavy drinking status at 1, 2, 7, and 16 weeks follow-up. Conclusions This research showed that the commonly used one and six month follow-up time-points are relatively arbitrary and not using EMA might bring forth erroneous conclusions on the effectiveness of interventions. Therefore, future trials in alcohol prevention research and beyond are encouraged to apply EMA when assessing outcome measures and intervention effectiveness.9 p