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Abstract: 

Motivational interviewing (MI) as a counseling approach may be an effective strategy for addressing engagement and implementation fidelity in educational contexts. This article reviews the theoretical and empirical support for the development of the Motivational Interviewing Training and Assessment System (MITAS) for school-based applications, discusses training and assessment components of MITAS, and presents results of a feasibility study, implemented with 12 early childhood support staff, that used a single group, pre-/post-test design to assess outcomes. Study results indicate that participants attended a majority of the training sessions and were judged by facilitators to be highly engaged in the training process. The large effect sizes for the measures of MI skill development provide preliminary evidence that the MITAS is promising for developing and evaluating MI skill acquisition and proficiency in school settings.

Keywords: Motivational interviewing, MITAS, implementation fidelity, MI proficiency, emotional and behavior disorders

Affiliations:  1: University of Louisville; 2: University of Cincinnati; 3: Oregon Research Institute; 4: University of Oregon; 5: University of Oregon.