Attitudes Toward Family-Based Treatment Impact Therapists' Intent to Change Their Therapeutic Practice for Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa.

Community-based clinicians who treat patients with eating disorders rarely use empirically-supported treatments, and research demonstrates that clinicians make significant modifications when implementing family-based treatment (FBT) for anorexia nervosa. This study examined clinician attitudes toward FBT and explored the extent to which attitudes predicted intent to shift practices following training in FBT. Clinicians ( = 129) completed a standardized training in FBT for AN, either a two-day introductory training ( = 99) or a one-day "advanced" training ( = 30). Linear regressions were used to examine the association between therapists' attitudes toward FBT and their intent to use strategies consistent with FBT in the future, adjusting for pre-training use of strategies. Providers reported very positive attitudes toward evidence-based practices in general and moderately positive attitudes toward FBT. There were no significant differences between "novice" and "advanced" providers on attitudes toward evidence-based practices or FBT (s > .10). For the subset of providers attending their first training in FBT, more positive attitudes toward FBT significantly predicted greater intent to use FBT-consistent strategies ( = .004), and more positive attitudes toward evidence-based practice significantly predicted lesser intent to use FBT-inconsistent strategies ( = .009). This study suggests that both general attitudes toward evidence-based practice and specific attitudes toward FBT may impact implementation. Future research might examine whether a brief intervention to improve attitudes toward FBT might increase the likelihood of seeking expert consultation post-training.