Developing a Single-Session Intervention to Support Adolescent Siblings of Children with Cancer

Rutgers Biomedical And Health Sciences, Newark NJ

Investigators

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Adolescent siblings of children with cancer are at-risk for psychological distress and report unmet needs in response to their sibling’s cancer diagnosis and treatment. However, most siblings do not have access to support services due to multiple barriers, including their absence from the hospital setting, inadequate staffing, billing challenges, and a paucity of widely disseminated evidence-based sibling interventions, which ultimately leads to significant service gaps and siblings being overlooked. Digital single-session interventions (SSI) significantly decrease psychological distress for adolescents in the general population; leveraging these high reach SSIs may overcome existing barriers to sibling care in psycho-oncology. Using a community-partnered approach, the goal of this proposal is to adapt, refine, and pilot test a Sibling SSI that aims to reduce psychological distress in adolescent siblings of children with cancer. Further, we aim to understand potential barriers and facilitators to implementation of this Sibling SSI. In Aim 1, the PI and the mentorship team will adapt an existing SSI to meet the specific needs of adolescent siblings of children with cancer. Adaptations will retain core SSI design principles and use solution-focused brief therapy to adapt an interactive, self-guided SSI for adolescent siblings. Adolescent siblings will participate in the adaptations through Think Aloud sessions (n=12). Aim 2 will evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary outcomes of the Sibling SSI versus a waitlist control to decrease psychological distress in siblings (n=50). The team will assess key components of participant engagement to inform the future, fully powered clinical trial, including recruitment rate, retention, and preliminary outcomes. In Aim 3, semi-structured interviews will be conducted with key informants (i.e., adolescent siblings and parents of children with cancer, hospital administrators and psycho-oncologists, and administrators at community organizations) to identify potential barriers and facilitators to implementation using the RE-AIM framework. Findings will inform the development of specific implementation strategies and an implementation plan to be tested in future work. The long-term objective of this work is to support the families of children with cancer through effective, accessible interventions to improve their psychological well-being, with a specific emphasis on siblings. This K08 will provide opportunities for the PI to acquire skills and knowledge in: (1) adaptation of digital interventions with an emphasis on SSI and user-informed design, (2) the conduct of clinical trials focused on behavior change interventions, (3) implementation science for digital interventions, and (4) building and sustaining community partnerships for community-partnered research. This research and career development plan, which is supported by a multidisciplinary team of experts in a rich academic environment and in partnership with a community organization, will support the PI’s transition to independence as a clinical scientist who possesses unique skills and expertise to adapt evidence-based interventions within the context of pediatric cancer to meet the needs of children with cancer and their families.