Background Adherence is a challenge in obesity treatment. Motivational interviewing (MI) may promote patient adherence. MI Values is a randomized controlled trial of MI implemented as an adjunct to an adolescent obesity treatment (T.E.E.N.S.). Objective Assess effects of MI Values on T.E.E.N.S. attrition and adherence. Methods Participants were randomized to MI (n=58) or control (n=41). At weeks 1 and 10, MI participants had brief MI sessions; controls viewed health education videos. All participants continued with T.E.E.N.S. (biweekly dietitian and behavioral support visits; 3x/week supervised physical activity). Assessments were repeated at baseline, 3 and 6-months. T-tests and chi-square analyses examined T.E.E.N.S. attrition and adherence by group. Results Adolescents (N=99) were primarily African American (73%) females (74%); age=13.8±1.8 years, body mass index percentile=98.0±1.2. Compared with controls, MI participants had greater 3-month adherence overall (89.2% vs. 81.0%, p=0.040), and to dietitian (91.3% vs. 84.0%; p=0.046) and behavioral support (92.9% vs. 85.2%; p=0.041) visits, and greater 6-month adherence overall (84.4% vs. 76.2%, p=0.026) and to behavioral support visits (87.5% vs. 78.8%, p=0.011). Conclusions MI enhanced adherence to this obesity intervention. MI Values is the first study to examine the impact of MI on treatment adherence among obese, primarily African American adolescents.

Objective: Therapistcompetence is an important component of treatment integrity. This paper reports on the development and initial psychometric assessment of the Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment for Anxiety in Youth Competence Scale (CBAY-C), an observational instrumentdesigned to capture therapist limited-domain competence (i.e., competence in the delivery of core interventions and delivery methods found in a specific psychosocialtreatment program) in the delivery of the core practice elements in individual cognitive-behavioral treatment (ICBT) for youth anxiety. Method: Treatment sessions (N = 744) from 68 youth participants (M age = 10.60 years, SD = 2.03; 82.3% Caucasian; 52.9% male) of the same ICBT program for youth anxiety from (a) an efficacy study and (b) an effectiveness study were independently scored by four coders using observational instruments designed to assess therapist competence, treatment adherence, treatment differentiation, alliance, and client involvement. Results: Inter-rater reliability (intraclass correlation coefficients, ICC(2,2)) for the item scores averaged 0.69 (SD = 0.11). The CBAY-C item, scale, and subscale (Skills, Exposure) scores showed evidence of validity via associations with observational instruments of treatment adherence to ICBT for youth anxiety, theory-based domains (CBT, psychodynamic, family, client-centered), alliance, and client involvement. Importantly, although the CBAY-Cscale, subscale, and item scores did overlap with a corresponding observational treatment adherence instrument independently rated by coders,the degree of overlap was moderate, indicating that theCBAY-C assessesa distinct component of treatment integrity. Conclusions: Applications of the instrument and future research directions discussed include the measurement of treatment integrity and testing integrity-outcome relations.

Previous research has suggested that the factor structure of anxiety measures is different in African American samples compared to majority population samples. However, these findings may be due to misuse of analytic methods rather than meaningful differences in the underlying presentation of anxiety. To address this, we examined the factor structure of two measures of child anxiety: the Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) and the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC) in a sample of 229 African American youth. Contrary to previous research, confirmatory factor analyses yielded good fit for the original factor structures of both measures. These results suggest that the underlying factor structure of these measures may not be significantly different for African American and majority population youth as previously thought. The effect of data analytic procedures on subsequent conclusions and theory is discussed and recommendations are made.

We sought to identify needs for behavioral health care in a large, urban pediatric primary care (PPC) clinic serving a population covered by Medicaid. Specifically, children (N = 197; 120 girls; 91 % African American) ages 8-17 years and their caregivers completed measures of internalizing and externalizing symptoms (RCADS, RCADS-P, MASC, and SDQ). Clinical elevations on all but one domain of the SDQ were significantly higher than expected. However, self-reported anxiety and depression symptoms were consistent with expectations. These findings suggest urban, low-income, primarily African American youth presenting at a PPC clinic demonstrate significant levels of behavioral and emotional symptoms. Implications of the findings include the need to ask both parents and children about child behavioral health problems and the possible influence of screening tool selection on detection.

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