Supports for Youth in Accelerated High School Curricula: An Initial Study of Applicability and Acceptability of a Motivational Interviewing Intervention

Abstract

High school students in accelerated classes face heightened school-related stressors but have access to few specialized supports. This article describes the development and initial application of the Motivation, Assessment, and Planning (MAP) intervention, developed to meet the needs of freshmen in Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) curricula. MAP is grounded in motivational interviewing and designed to evoke behavior change following one to two individual meetings with a coach. This study used a multimethod, multisource approach to evaluate the applicability and acceptability of MAP as a Tier 2 support for 9th-grade students completing AP/IB coursework. Quantitative and qualitative acceptability data from 49 AP/IB students, 7 coaches, and 3 potential end-users of MAP were examined. Results indicate MAP was perceived as an acceptable intervention for addressing the social–emotional needs of high-achieving students taking AP/IB classes. Findings and directions for further research of MAP are discussed.

Supporting college student self-determination through motivational interviewing

“…At the start of the intervention, participants were asked to complete a short demographics questionnaire (see Figure 2). The first meeting used a protocol, designed by the first author and modified from O'Brennan et al . (2020), intending to provide a framework for fidelity of implementation and the quality of MI utilized.…”

“…Participant satisfaction surveys and open-ended questions drew from publications resulting from an IES grant (R305A150543; O'Brennan et al ., 2020; Shum, 2020). Psychometric properties are provided in the technical manual associated with O'Brennan et al . (2020).…”

Acceptability of a Preventative Coping and Connectedness Curriculum for High School Students Entering Accelerated Curricula

“…Five teachers sought student participation and parent permission from all ninth-grade students enrolled in a state-approved Pre-IBD course, Inquiry Skills (School C), or AP Human Geography (School D). We invited students who returned signed parent consent forms to take part in the portions of the larger study that involved collection of personal and confidential data (e.g., assessment of student mental health and academic outcomes across time, as analyzed in studies reported elsewhere [O’Brennan et al, 2020; Parker et al, 2019; Suldo et al, 2019]) while all students in the classrooms where ACE was implemented were invited to provide anonymous feedback on their perceptions of the curriculum. A total of 331 ninth-grade students agreed to participate in the larger study (participation rate = 93.0%; 3.6% of parents declined consent; 3.4% of students did not return parent consent forms).…”

The Unlearning of School Attendance: Ideas for Change

“…MTSS approaches involve preventative (Tier 1), early intervention (Tier 2), and later intervention (Tier 3) strategies to address non-problematic, acute, and chronic issues, in this case to improve school attendance and to ameliorate emerging and intense school attendance problems (August et al, 2018). MTSS approaches also contain several spectra with respect to nuanced and tailored responses that are administered across various settings and providers (O'Brennan et al, 2020). MTSS approaches remain in the nascent stage with respect to SA/Ps, though recommendations for each level have been developed Chang et al, 2018).…”