An Emotion Regulation Intervention for Early Adolescent Risk Prevention

Emotion regulation in adolescence is associated with health risk behaviors, including sex and substance use, and early onset of these behaviors represents a risk factor for negative health outcomes throughout life. Thus, interventions appropriate for early adolescence, when these behaviors commonly begin, are critical for prevention efforts. The research team has developed and tested a novel, engaging, and efficacious intervention that addresses emotion regulation, a theoretically important and under-researched factor associated with risk. The efficacy trial of this intervention, Project TRAC, showed that an intervention strategy using emotion regulation was significantly more successful than an active comparison condition on the primary target, delaying onset of sexual activity over a two and a half year follow-up, as well as on other risk behaviors, such as condom use, fighting, and partner violence. While efficacious, the current face-to-face, small group format of the program is a difficult model to sustain and implement on a larger scale. With a long-term goal toward dissemination, this two-year project will translate the emotion regulation components of this successful program for tablet-based delivery to enable it to reach a large audience in a format that can be related to a variety of health behavior education topics (e.g., sexual health, violence, substance use). For the proposed project, the Rhode Island Hospital/ Brown University research team will collaborate with Klein Buendel, a health communications technology company, to translate the emotion regulation content of Project TRAC for tablet computers. This translation, using well-established theoretical frameworks, will be approached in consultation with members of the target population (early adolescents) and experts in the field. After the intervention has been translated to a tablet form, ten adolescents will test the program to assess acceptability and usability. Finally, a small pilot study (n=100) will assess feasibility of the translated intervention and compare it to a waitlist control group.