ABSTRACT

Behavioral change in adolescents is often an important aim of residential youth care, but difficult to achieve. Care workers can increase the intrinsic motivation of adolescents to change their behavior by applying Motivational Interviewing (MI). The aim of this study is to investigate whether there is a difference in workers’ performance vis-à-vis adolescents before and after an MI training course. To measure this difference, we coded transcripts of audio recordings of one-on-one conversations between adolescents and workers, using the MITI 4.2.1 and MISC 2.5. We compared the transcripts made before the MI training course with the transcripts made after the training course. The results show that the 13 workers made significantly more use of MI adherent behaviors after the training course. Moreover, a trend toward using fewer MI non-adherent behaviors after the training was observed. The results suggest that workers are able to evoke more ‘change talk’ with adolescents after a training course. In conclusion, after attending a training course, workers are able to engage in conversations that are more in line with the MI-spirit. However, these are still not “real” MI conversations yet. We recommend to train workers more intensively in how to apply MI.

摘要

青少年的行为改变通常是寄宿青少年护理的一个重要目标，但很难实现。护理人员可以通过运用动机面试（MI）来增强青少年改变其行为的内在动力。本研究的目的是调查在 MI 培训课程之前和之后，工人的表现是否与青少年相比存在差异。为了衡量这种差异，我们使用 MITI 4.2.1 和 MISC 2.5 对青少年和工人之间一对一对话的录音记录进行了编码。我们将 MI 培训课程之前制作的成绩单与培训课程之后制作的成绩单进行了比较。结果表明，13 名工人在培训课程后显着更多地使用了 MI 依从行为。而且，观察到训练后使用较少 MI 非依从行为的趋势。结果表明，工人在经过培训后能够唤起更多与青少年的“改变谈话”。总之，参加培训课程后，员工能够进行更符合 MI 精神的对话。然而，这些仍然不是“真正的” MI 对话。我们建议更深入地培训工人如何应用 MI。