Douglas C. Smith
Social Work, "A Brazilian Cultural Adaptation of Family-Centered Motivational Interviewing"
Motivational Interviewing is an empirically supported intervention that helps people resolve ambivalence about making changes. Yet, there are very few adaptations of MI for use with families, and there exists limited information on how MI may need to be culturally adapted to for Brazilian families.
The aims of the project are to 1) recruit between 10-20 Brazilian families where one member experiences a substance use problem, 2) deliver an MI intervention in family sessions, and 3) collect extensive feedback from the families about the intervention in order to inform a larger trial. Sessions will be recorded and transcribed, and the collaborators will develop a new process coding instrument suitable for coding family sessions of MI. There are no coding instruments for family-delivered MI where multiple change behaviors are considered (e.g., reduce substance use, increase communication, spend more recreational time together), but a novel conceptual model has been developed by Dr. Smith and will be published in his forthcoming book (2024), entitled “Motivational Interviewing with Families.” Furthermore, this project would rekindle a collaboration between Dr. Douglas C. Smith (UIUC, Social Work) and Heloísa Garcia Claro (Brazil, UNICAMP), which went inactive for a few years due to the Global Covid 19 pandemic.