Project PATH

Project PATH is a research study conducted through the University of North Texas Health Science Center located in Fort Worth, TX. This study aims to explore health and risk behaviors in adolescents and young adults, including alcohol, drug use, and sexual behaviors. This is a Texas study conducted online including one online training session via Zoom Video Communications.

All young adults between the ages of 15 and 25 who currently reside in Texas and are willing to participate in a one-time online training session via Zoom Video communications are invited to participate. We are interested in recruiting both individuals who do not drink alcohol or use drugs and who do drink alcohol or use drugs.

All participants who are eligible for the study and choose to participate can earn up to $408 over the one-year study. The breakdown is as follows: $25 for the 45-minute online baseline survey, $25 for the online training session and $3 per AM and PM survey (see details below). You will also receive a bonus of $10 per quarter for completing 90% or more of the daily assessments. 12 months after your online training session, you will be asked to complete one web-based 45-minute survey for which you will be paid $25. You can receive a bonus of $5 if you provide contact information for individuals to contact for potential study enrollment and your provided referral contact information leads to the enrollment of one or more referred individuals. You will be mailed a Greenphire Mastercard after your online session, on which all of your payments will be loaded onto.

The first step involves completing a confidential 5-minute online survey to see if the study is right for you. This survey includes questions about your personal characteristics (age, gender, etc.), education (student status, highest degree, etc.), and contact information (phone number, email address, etc.). You must provide consent to participate in the online screening survey.

If you are under 18 years old, your parent will need to provide consent before you can participate in the larger study.

The next step is to complete a brief, 5-minute verification phone call with study staff. During this phone call, you will have the opportunity to ask questions and to consent to participating in the study. If you confirm your interest in participating in the study, you will be invited to complete an online survey, which will take approximately 45 minutes to complete. You must provide consent to participate in the main/larger study before initiating study activities. You will be paid $25 loaded onto your Greenphire Mastercard to compensate for your time.

Following the online survey, you will be invited to schedule an online session via Zoom Video Communications regarding the daily survey portion of the study (see below). During this online  session, you will be shown how to complete surveys sent to you via text message or email. The online session will last approximately 30 minutes and you will be paid $25 to compensate for your time. After your online session, you will be mailed a Greenphire Mastercard and you will be asked to contact us via email or phone once you receive the card so we can load the card with a total of $50 for the online baseline survey ($25) and the online session ($25).

During this online session via Zoom you will meet with a staff member for a brief training on the next phase of the study, which includes daily surveys sent to you via text message or email. You will be asked to complete surveys for one year; within this year there will be four quarters that consist of 3-weeks of 5-7 minute surveys where there are two assessments (AM and PM) a day for two days a week as well as two AM and two PM assessments. Thus, there will be 8 surveys a week. You will begin the first of the surveys (all completed via the internet from the link sent to you via text message or email) on the weekend immediately following your online session.

AM surveys will occur anytime between 6AM and 12PM CST at a time chosen by you. After the AM survey, there will be a PM survey, which will occur randomly anytime within the designated afternoon time block 1PM-6PM CST. You will be paid $3 per AM survey and $3 per PM survey, which will be loaded onto your Greenphire Mastercard at the end of each quarter throughout the course of the study.  You may receive a bonus of $10 per quarter if you complete 90% or more of the daily assessments.

You will also be asked to complete one web-based 45-minute survey at the end of the year. You will receive $25 loaded onto your Greenphire Mastercard for completing this survey.

You can receive a bonus of $5 on the Greenphire Mastercard if you provide contact information for individuals to contact for potential study enrollment and your provided referral contact information leads to the enrollment of one or more referred individuals.

In total, you can earn up to $408 loaded onto your Greenphire Mastercard over the course of the one-year study.

Your friend can participate as long as they are between 15 and 25, and are currently residing in Texas.

To give all of your friends the opportunity to participate:

Like or share Project PATH on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/starr.unthsc/

Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/starrlab.unthsc/?hl=en

Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/STARRLab_UNTHSC

All social networking site notifications from researchers to participants about study related items will be through private/direct messages (nothing will be directly posted to anyone’s profile).

You can receive a bonus of $5 on the Greenphire MasterCard if you provide contact information for individuals to contact for potential study enrollment and your provided referral contact information leads to the enrollment of one or more referred individuals.

Project PATH depends on our participants and the information you share with us helps us create a more accurate portrayal of young adults’ health behaviors, including alcohol use, and of the transition to adulthood. We sincerely appreciate the time and effort it takes to be a Project PATH participant and we value the thoughts and comments from everyone who participates. Your willingness to report your responses as accurately and honestly as you can is what makes our project a success.

If you are eligible and choose to participate, you can earn up to $408 loaded onto your Greenphire Mastercard over the course of the one-year study.

There is potential risk for participating in Project PATH. The risks associated with participation are primarily related to the possibility of hacking during the online training session and the sensitivity of some of the questions. Due to the online nature of the training session, there exists a probability that the session could be hacked, which would result in loss of confidentiality. Additionally, you will be asked about thoughts, feelings, and personal difficulties that may be private, as well as behaviors such as alcohol use, drug use, and sexual behavior. These questions may make you feel uncomfortable or may seem intrusive, or you may become concerned about your drinking or other health behaviors as you answer the questions. In addition, you are asked to report on illegal behaviors, such as drinking under the legal age, or using controlled substances. As a participant, you are free to skip over any questions you do not wish to answer.

The study is not designed to benefit you directly. However, you may gain a better understanding of yourself and your behavior. Benefits to society include the opportunity to contribute to the development of programs intended to reduce the health and behavioral problems sometimes associated with drinking behavior in young people.

Your participation is completely confidential. To ensure that online training sessions are not hacked, online connection to the sessions via Zoom will be encrypted and the training session facilitator will lock the online session once the participant has joined. This will minimize the potential for loss of confidentiality if an attempt to hack the online training session was made. Data will be identified by a PIN randomly generated for research purposes. Your contact information and your study data will be stored in separate locations, but will be linked by your PIN. The PIN is the only way to link your contact information to the data that we collect from you. Only you and the researchers will know the PIN. You will not be identified in any research reports or presentations of this research. Data identified only by the PIN may be shared with other researchers doing similar work on other campuses, and/or be combined with data from other campuses in some research reports. Your name and contact information will be accessible only to research staff for the purposes of contacting you to complete the study, and will be stored separately from your data on computers with password protection and in locked file cabinets. If you DO NOT choose to get contacted for other research studies, we will retain your name and contact information until the end of the study, by which date all names and other identifying information will be destroyed, thereby removing any link between participants and their data. If you DO choose to get contacted for other research studies, we will retain your name and contact information until the end of the study, by which date all names and other identifying information will be destroyed, thereby removing any link between participants and their data.

Participation in this research is voluntary, and you are free to skip over any questions you do not want to answer or to stop participating at any time. All of your data will be kept confidential.