Cognitive and Emotional Skills to Aid Smoking Prevention

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Tobacco Smoking

In brief

The purpose of the current proposal is to investigate the extent to which interventions designed to improve cognitive (working memory) and emotional (distress tolerance) regulatory processes enhance the effectiveness of standard no-smoking informational interventions. Emotional and cognitive dysregulation increases the likelihood of smoking and makes it particularly challenging to benefit from standard interventions. Working memory and associated deficits make it more difficult for individuals to utilize information from interventions, make judicious decisions regarding the cost and benefits of smoking, and to resist targeted advertising. In addition, disruptions in emotion regulatory capacities increase the probability of using cigarettes as a coping mechanism to self-regulate negative affect and stress. Individuals with affective disturbances smoke at higher rates and have more difficulties quitting, and are more likely to smoke as a way to reduce negative affect. The goal of the current project is to generate new insights and new approaches to smoking prevention among low-SES youth by investigating (1) the influence of known SES-related deficits in working memory and affect regulation on proximal measures of smoking risk, and (2) the potential for targeted interventions to reverse these risks. Specifically, the investigators examine the influence of working memory training and distress tolerance (mindfulness) interventions on cognitive/affective targets placing individuals at risk for smoking initiation and maintenance. The specific aims of this study are therefore to investigate: 1. The feasibility and acceptability of school- and community-based brief interventions targeting working memory and distress tolerance in a diverse sample of low SES adolescents. 2. The effects of working memory and distress tolerance interventions, relative to a standard informational intervention alone, on specific cognitive-affective targets-delay discounting and distress tolerance--relevant to cigarette smoking initiation and maintenance. 3. The impact of cognitive /affective target activation on proximal measures of smoking risk/behavior and related health outcomes following intervention.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT03058991

Run by

Boston University Charles River Campus

People needed

124

Starts

2016-11-08

Expected to finish

2019-04-04

Last updated by the study team

2021-07-23

Who can join

Age: 12 and older, up to 16. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Adolescents (ages 12 years or older) enrolled in high school as a freshman or sophomore.
• Reflecting the demographics of the community in which we are recruiting, we expect approximately 70% of the sample to be at or below the poverty level, balanced between males and females, with the majority from an ethnic minority background.

You may not qualify if…

• Non-English speaking (operationalized as the inability to read and understand the consent form and converse in spoken English)

Where it is running

• Boston University — Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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