Strategies that Promote Therapist Engagement in Active and Experiential Learning: Micro-Level Sequential Analysis

Enhancing early parenting in the community: Preliminary results from a learning collaborative approach to scale up Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up

Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) is a promising home-visiting intervention promoting sensitive caregiving and secure parent-child attachment in families with young children. The goal of this study was to examine a learning collaborative approach to disseminating ABC in a community setting. Training outcomes (e.g., trainee completion, satisfaction, effectiveness of training methods) and intervention outcomes (e.g., parent behavior, parent beliefs, child socioemotional development) were examined. Eighteen practitioners participated in the ABC learning collaborative; 13 completed training. Quantitative and qualitative measures indicated that trainees were satisfied with their experience and valued the unique collaboration opportunities offered by the learning collaborative. In addition, trainees served 67 families in the community, 37 of whom completed all sessions of ABC. The study was conducted in the United States. Racial demographics of the children in the sample included: 56.7% White, 22.4% Black/African-American, 17.9% Bi- or Multi-racial, and 3.0% unknown. Regarding ethnicity, 80.6% were Non-Hispanic/Latino, 10.4% were Hispanic/Latino, and 9.0% were unknown. Caregivers who completed ABC showed more sensitive parenting behavior and reported positive changes in their perceived self-efficacy and their beliefs around infant crying. Children who received ABC showed increased socioemotional functioning. Results demonstrate successful dissemination of ABC in the community using a learning collaborative approach.

A Behavior-based Coding Tool for Assessing Supervisors' Adherence and Competence: Findings From a Motivational Interviewing Implementation Study

Supervision seems to be an essential part of therapist training, and thus also of implementing evidence-based practices. However, there is a shortage of valid and reliable instruments for objective assessment of supervision competence that include both global measures and frequency counts of behavior - two essential aspects of supervisory competence. This study tests the internal consistency and inter-rater reliability of an assessment tool that includes both these measures. Additionally, strategies and techniques used by ten supervisors in 35 Motivational interviewing supervision sessions are described. Codings were conducted after two separate coding training sessions. The internal consistency across the global measures was acceptable (α = 0.70; 0.71). After the second training, the inter-rater reliabilities for all frequency counts were in the moderate to good range, except for two that were in the poor range; inter-rater reliability for one of the four global measures was in the moderate range, and three were in the poor range. A prerequisite for identifying specific supervisor skills central to the development of therapist skills, teaching these skills to supervisors, and performing quality assurance of supervision, is to create instruments that can measure these behaviors. This study is a step in that direction.

Self-Coding of Fidelity as a Potential Active Ingredient of Consultation to Improve Clinicians' Fidelity

A key goal for implementation science is the identification of evidence-based consultation protocols and the active ingredients within these protocols that drive clinician behavior change. The current study examined clinicians' self-coding of fidelity as a potential active ingredient of consultation for the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) intervention. It also examined two other potential predictors of clinician fidelity in response to consultation: dosage of consultation and working alliance. Twenty-nine clinicians (97% female, 62% White, M age = 34 years) participated in a year of weekly fidelity-focused ABC consultation sessions, for which clinicians self-coded fidelity and received consultant feedback on both their coding and their fidelity. Data from the ABC fidelity measure were available for 1067 sessions coded by consultants, and clinicians' self-coding accuracy was calculated from 1044 sessions coded by both clinicians and consultants. Alliance was measured with the Working Alliance Inventory-Trainee and Supervisor Versions. The study was observational, and fidelity and self-coding accuracy were modeled across time using hierarchical linear modeling. Clinicians' ABC fidelity, as well as their self-coding accuracy, increased over the course of consultation. Clinicians' self-coding accuracy predicted their initial fidelity and growth in fidelity. Working alliance was also linked to fidelity and self-coding accuracy. These results suggest that clinician self-coding should be further examined as an active ingredient of consultation. The study has important implications for the design of consultation procedures and fidelity assessments.