Recruiting

Parents ASSIST

Sponsor:

University of Pennsylvania

Code:

NCT07672067

Conditions

HIV/STI Incidence

Communication About Health Information

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 12 - 70+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

Parents ASSIST

Study Details

Brief summary:

The study is centered on helping parents answer and meet the sexuality-specific questions and needs of gay or bisexual males. This study seeks to test the efficacy of Parents ASSIST as a parent-child sexuality communication intervention that educates and trains parents to be purveyors of inclusive health information as gay or bisexual sons come of age at home.

Conditions

HIV/STI Incidence

Communication About Health Information

Study ID

NCT07672067

Start date

May 1, 2026

Status verified date

Jul, 2026

Completion date

Aug 30, 2029

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Dec 30, 2028

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 12 - 70+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Youth participants are:

  • identify as a cisgender sexual minority male (e.g., gay or bisexual)
  • be between ages 12-18 years
  • able to comprehend spoken English
  • resides in the United States
  • consents or assents to study participation

Parent participants are:

  • the parent, legal guardians, legal custodians (hereinafter "parent") of gay or bisexual adolescent
  • age 18 or older
  • able to comprehend spoken English
  • resides in the United States
  • consents to study participation
  • consents to their child's study participation

Study Design

Enrollment

476 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Single group

Primary purpose

Prevention

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Intervention Arm

Parents randomized to receive the intervention (n=238) will be assigned to a 5-session online intervention that comprise 8-12 parents per cohort. They will register their profiles via our secure, password-protected Parents ASSIST website. Parents in the intervention arm will complete one session per week where they watch two videos focused on sexual health and family communication. They will also be asked to complete homework tasks with their GBQ child. GBQ adolescents will not be intervened upon directly; rather, we will instruct parents to engage their sons based on the information and skills learned weekly through the intervention.

active comparator: Control Arm

Control group participants (n=238 parents) will be assigned to the health promotion arm and similarly asked to register into our secure Parents ASSIST study site but will be assigned to the control group educational resources: alcohol use, bullying, sleep hygiene, tobacco use, and body image issues. Individual participants will access via the website the videos on these non-sexual health focused conditions.

Interventions

Parents ASSIST

Parents ASSIST is a 5-session intervention where an interventionist will facilitate sessions that will include 8-12 parents per group. Each parent will have access to intervention content (e.g., videos, activities) across the i five synchronous sessions. Session I will focus on the issue of coming out and its impact on the family as well as on youth mental health. Session II centers on communication-based content. Sessions III and IV focuses on topic-centered content to address the knowledge gap parents have reported regarding general LGBTQ concerns and specific GBQ issues and builds on the communication skills learned in Session I. Session V provides a communication recap and focuses on how parents may have follow-up conversations. In between the sessions, asynchronous interactive homework assignments will be provided to review concepts learned in the previous sessions and to initiate joint activities between parents and GBQ youth.

Primary outcome measure

  • Parent-Adolescent Communication Quality [ Time Frame: Baseline, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months ]
  • Parent-Adolescent Communication Quantity [ Time Frame: Baseline, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Dalmacio D Flores, PhD

4043944593dalmacio@nursing.upenn.edu

Locations

University of Pennsylvania

Recruiting

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19104

Contacts

Dalmacio D Flores, PhD

404-394-4593dalmacio@nursing.upenn.edu

More Information

Sponsor

University of Pennsylvania

Last update posted

Jul 15, 2026

Last verified

Jul, 2026

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-09. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by University of Pennsylvania on 2026-07-15.