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Knowledge of and Attitudes Towards Evidence-Based Practices in Community Child Mental Health Practitioners

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Abstract

Research in the dissemination of evidence-based practices (EBPs) suggests that practitioners’ knowledge of and attitudes towards EBPs influence their decisions to adopt such practices. This study investigated the relationships between practitioner background variables and EBP knowledge and attitudes, as well as the relationship between knowledge and attitudes among public sector youth direct service providers (n = 240). Findings suggest that knowledge and attitudes relate to practitioners’ most advanced degree, practice setting, and licensure status. Additionally, lack of knowledge in the form of EBP under-identification was related to negative attitudes. Findings are discussed as they relate to the dissemination of EBPs.

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Notes

  1. Regarding outlier identification, standardized scores were calculated for relevant continuous data and responses in excess of 3.29 (p < .001, two-tailed test), were considered outliers (Tabachnick and Fidell 2007). The Shapiro–Wilk’s W statistic (Shapiro and Wilk 1965) was utilized for testing distribution normality, with p values <.001 indicating non-normality (Tabachnick and Fidell 2007).

  2. Given that therapists were nested within 19 different mental health agencies (see “Participants” section), organizational effects may have been present for this and other dependent variables. Therefore, seven one-way ANOVAs were conducted in order to preliminarily examine whether agency accounted for significant variability on knowledge (KEBSQ total scores) and all attitudinal indices (all EBPAS scale scores, MPAS total scores). All ANOVAs were non-significant against an alpha level of .05, suggesting that agency did not account for significant variability on these indices. However, this study could have benefited from a larger sample size for examining such effects. This and other limitations are further explored in “Discussion” section.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, 1601 East-West Road, Honolulu, HI, 96848, USA

    Brad J. Nakamura & Kelsie H. Okamura

  2. University of Hawai’i at Hilo, Hilo, HI, USA

    Charmaine K. Higa-McMillan

  3. Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division, Hawai’i State Department of Health, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Scott Shimabukuro

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  1. Brad J. Nakamura
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  2. Charmaine K. Higa-McMillan
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  3. Kelsie H. Okamura
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  4. Scott Shimabukuro
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Correspondence to Brad J. Nakamura.

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Nakamura, B.J., Higa-McMillan, C.K., Okamura, K.H. et al. Knowledge of and Attitudes Towards Evidence-Based Practices in Community Child Mental Health Practitioners. Adm Policy Ment Health 38, 287–300 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-011-0351-2

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