Associate Professor and Director of the Health Psychology Program in the Department of Psychology, Angela Bryan knows all too well the dangers facing adolescents after years of research studying teens and risky behavior. Even more danger lurks for troubled teens when alcohol becomes part of the mix. Bryan, who is also a researcher at the UNM Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse, and Addictions (CASAA), and her research into alcohol and the role it plays in sexual risk-taking among detained adolescents, is featured in the February 2009 issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.
Photo: Associate Professor Angela Bryan
In a paper titled, “Randomized trial of group interventions to reduce HIV/STD risk and change theoretical mediators among detained adolescents,” Bryan discusses a study of three different interventions designed to reduce behavior leading to HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases among adolescents involved with the criminal justice system. The research, which was funded by a $1.3 million grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, centers on the role of alcohol and risky sexual behavior.
“The focus of the research was to explore risk-taking with substances like alcohol and marijuana and to find ways to encourage healthier behavior among adolescents in the criminal justice system,” said Bryan. “Kids at any level of the criminal justice system, whether they are detained, arrested or on probation, have higher rates of risky sexual behavior than their non-criminally involved peers – and this behavior has great potential to compromise their health.”
Bryan and her former students and post doctoral research associate, has discovered in her research that an HIV/STD risk reduction intervention that included alcohol content was better than two other interventions at influencing both cognitions related to condom use (i.e., confidence in one's ability to use condoms) as well as condom use behavior at three months post-intervention.
The intervention methods utilized in Bryan’s research include information on controlling the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases and prevention; interactive activities including group discussions about how to talk to your partner, and where to get and how to use condoms, and actual practice at handling condoms and getting comfortable with them. In the intervention that included alcohol content, Bryan introduced a third component, which has proven successful in reducing substance use with other populations, called motivational enhancement therapy (MET). In Bryan’s work, they do MET in groups of peers.
“It’s a slightly different group format with an upside,” said Bryan. “Adults can talk all day long to kids, but when their peers talk about how they protect themselves, it works well with adolescents. They seem to listen to their peers. On balance, the modality works well with kids.”
The research was conducted among 14-17 year-olds in the Denver-area. Bryan is now conducting similar research in the Albuquerque-area.
The intervention is promising, but Bryan points out that it doesn’t work perfectly nor does it work well for everyone.
“It may be that some of us have a basic biological predisposition that influences how we respond to these types of psychosocial interventions,” said Bryan. “There are probably genetic differences that lead to differences in how our brains are wired that makes it more difficult for some people to change their behavior.
"We’re going to collect DNA as well as a brain scan to try to understand if there are biological differences that determine how kids respond to this type of intervention versus something else. The goal is to help them all engage in healthier behavior. However, it’s probably not a one size fits all solution.”
Bryan and her colleagues at the Mind Research Network (MRN) in Albuquerque were recently awarded $3.3 million, also from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, to fund this new research. The brain scanning and DNA analysis are conducted at the MRN.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at February 5, 2009 03:31 PM