Abstract
The paper describes the applicability and acceptability of a selective intervention—Motivation, Assessment, and Planning (MAP)—for high school students that was developed based on the principles of motivational interviewing (MI) and tailored to the unique needs and strengths of students taking accelerated coursework, specifically Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) classes. In addition to detailing the intervention in terms of MI spirit, processes, and relational and technical skills, we report applicability and acceptability data from a second iteration of MAP implementation in eight AP/IB programs in a Southeastern state during spring 2018. We analyzed quantitative and qualitative acceptability data from 121 high school freshmen (97 from AP and 24 from IB courses), as well as the seven MAP coaches who were trained using the Motivational Interview Training and Assessment System (Frey et al. 2017). To gain perspectives from the intended end users of the refined MAP, 12 school counselors and school psychologists who were not trained in MAP evaluated the intervention and provided qualitative and quantitative data on applicability and acceptability. All three stakeholder groups (students, coaches, and school mental health staff) rated and described the intervention as highly acceptable and appropriate for addressing the social-emotional needs of adolescents in AP/IB classes.
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Funding
The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305A150543 to the University of South Florida. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee (University of South Florida, IRB Number: Pro00022787) and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Suldo, S.M., Wang, J.H., O’Brennan, L.M. et al. A Motivational Interviewing Intervention for Adolescents in Accelerated High School Curricula: Applicability and Acceptability in a Second Sample. Prev Sci 22, 811–825 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-021-01204-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-021-01204-z