Abstract
IntroductionGuidelines for developing complex interventions include implementing strategies to monitor intervention delivery. These can include tracking therapist behaviors, which are connected to therapist effectiveness. In this project, we examine a music therapist's (MT) behaviors during the implementation of the Musical Contour Regulation Facilitation (MCRF) intervention, a complex music-based intervention to support emotion regulation development in preschoolers.MethodsThis was a retrospective analysis of videotaped footage from four weeks of MCRF sessions facilitated from May through July 2014. From a representative sample of 30% of sessions (n = 12), we randomly selected one per week for analysis. Three research assistants independently coded the videos, tracking the frequency of verbal, nonverbal, and musical behaviors in 15-second intervals (interrater agreement = 80.6%). We conducted descriptive analyses on observed therapist behavior overall and during different intervention components.ResultsResults showed the MT exhibited an average of 365.0 behaviors per 11-minute session, grouped into five verbal, four nonverbal, and seven musical behaviors. We noted differences in behaviors demonstrated between intervention components and within-session transitions, including differences in the type of behavior and the number of behaviors presented.DiscussionFindings suggest differences in the frequency and type of verbal, nonverbal, and musical behaviors demonstrated by the MT that reflected specific intervention components. Future MCRF intervention research should include monitoring of therapist behaviors to help determine behaviors necessary for fidelity of effective implementation and those that will aid in intervention scalability and translation to clinical practice between different therapists.