Telephone-Based Cancer Education With or Without Telephone-Based Counseling in Young Participants

OBJECTIVES: Primary * Compare the efficacy of telephone-based cancer education with vs without counseling in younger participants. Secondary * Determine the mechanisms by which education with counseling may impact cancer-relevant cognitive and behavioral outcomes. * Identify teens who may be most and least likely to benefit from education with counseling. OUTLINE: This is a pilot, controlled, randomized study. Participants are stratified according to age (13-14 years vs 15 years vs 16 years vs 17 years vs 18-21 years), gender, race (white vs black vs other), and health status (chronic disease vs no chronic disease). Participants are randomized to 1 of 2 education arms. * Arm I: Participants undergo cancer education sessions via telephone over 45 minutes once a week for 8 weeks. * Arm II: Participants under cancer education sessions as in arm I and counseling techniques during the same telephone sessions. In both arms, participants receive an intervention kit by mail before the first telephone call. The intervention kit includes age-appropriate self-help materials. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 300 participants will be accrued for this study.