DESCRIPTION: (Applicant's Abstract) Research on the assessment and training of substance-related coping skills in parents of adolescent substance abusers has been limited. Previous funding was awarded to a measurement and therapy development project (now in its final stages) with the goals of (a) Establishing the psychometric properties of a role-play measure of substance-related coping in parents of adolescent substance abusers (the Parent Situation Inventory, PSI); (b) Using clinically-relevant inventory content, to design a cognitive-behavioral coping skills training program for parents of adolescent substance abusers, and (c) Pilot-testing the efficacy of the program in comparison to a wait list control condition. The present competing continuation application builds on the results of this research and extends study of the PSI to a full-scale clinical trial of the skills training program. In the present proposal, parents whose adolescent substance abuser is not currently in treatment will be randomly assigned to receive one of three treatment conditions: a coping skills training group, a twelve step facilitation group, or a waiting list control condition. In addition, subjects will be randomly assigned to receive pretreatment coping skills assessment on one of the two PSI forms--the content of which is used for skill training groups (discussion in twelve step facilitation). The effect of the treatment/waiting list conditions on substance-related coping skills (with the alternate PSI form), parent functioning and adolescent functioning will be evaluated at posttreatment and at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months posttreatment. Wait list comparisons will be included only in the posttreatment analysis. The research also explores two subject X treatment interaction hypotheses, which focus on the interaction of treatment type with parent spirituality, and social support. In sum, the proposed project moves to Stage 2 in the development of a theoretically-based psychosocial therapy by (a) building on previous research utilizing the PSI, (b) rigorously examining the effects of two treatments using different PSI forms, and (c) providing valuable information on the relative and differential efficacy of the coping skill training model and the twelve step facilitation model with parents of adolescent substance abusers.
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