To Change or Not to Change? A Study regarding the Satisfaction of Care Workers and Adolescents with the Motivational Interviewing Based Residential Youth Care Training Program Up2U

Long-term behavioral change is often difficult to achieve with adolescents staying in residential youth care. To achieve long-term behavioral change, we developed the Up2U training program to enhance these adolescents’ intrinsic motivation for change. Based on motivational interviewing and solution-focused therapy, Up2U is designed for conducting one-on-one conversations with adolescents in residential youth care. The aim of this study is to evaluate the experiences that adolescents and care workers have had with Up2U. The results of semi-structured interviews show that, in general, the care workers were satisfied with Up2U. They identified the clarity, conciseness, and sample questions as positive elements of Up2U. In contrast, the care workers regarded the extensiveness and the implementation of Up2U as less positive. The adolescents also seemed to be positive about the use of Up2U during one-on-one conversations. In conclusion, although both care workers and adolescents were generally satisfied, there is still room for improvement.