Yirmiya, Karen;
Marjoribanks, Sophie;
Fonagy, Peter;
Bateman, Anthony;
(2025)
Assessing mentalization in practice: Reliability of the mentalization-based treatment research adherence and competence scale.
British Journal of Clinical Psychology
10.1111/bjc.70010.
(In press).
Preview |
Text
Yirmiya_British J Clinic Psychol - Assessing mentalization in practice .pdf Download (324kB) | Preview |
Abstract
Objectives: Mentalization-Based Treatment (MBT) requires rigorous fidelity assessment to ensure accurate delivery and validate treatment efficacy. This study introduces the Mentalization-Based Treatment Research Adherence and Competence Scale (MBT-RACS), a new instrument developed initially for research purposes to align with contemporary MBT principles and address psychometric and conceptual limitations found in earlier adherence assessment approaches. Methods: Inter-rater reliability of the MBT-RACS was evaluated using 126 recorded MBT sessions (104 group, 22 individual), rated by 17 trained coders. Results: The results indicated strong overall reliability, with most domains demonstrating good to excellent inter-rater agreement across both group and individual sessions, irrespective of ratings from two or three raters. Total adherence intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were notably high for both group (.84) and individual (.95) sessions rated by two coders, substantially exceeding the reliability typically reported for comparable adherence instruments. Conclusions: These findings suggest that the MBT-RACS's format, which emphasizes broader, clinically meaningful domains, may contribute to improved consistency in ratings. The scale's robust reliability supports its applicability in research and clinical supervision, enhancing methodological rigour, quality assurance and targeted feedback for effective MBT training and implementation.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Assessing mentalization in practice: Reliability of the mentalization-based treatment research adherence and competence scale |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1111/bjc.70010 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1111/bjc.70010 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2025 The Author(s). British Journal of Clinical Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | adherence, competence, inter-rater reliability, MBT-RACS, mentalization-based treatment, psychotherapy research, treatment fidelity |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10211793 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
