Counsellors' verbal behaviours and skills that elicit participants' change or sustain talk in virtual motivational interviewing for physical activity among older adults

Exploring the influence of counsellors' verbal behaviours on participants' utterances in virtual motivational interviewing (MI) could broaden our understanding of how MI works. This study aims to determine counsellors' behaviours that are more or less likely than chance to elicit participants' change talk and sustain talk during a virtual MI intervention to promote physical activity among older adults. A sequential analysis was used to examine the transitional probability between the counsellors' and participants' behaviours. Thirty-five MI sessions were analysed from the virtual motivational interviewing (VIMINT) trial. MI-consistent behaviours (MICO) were significantly more likely than chance to be followed by change talk, sustain talk and follow/neutral talk. MI-inconsistent behaviours (MIIN) were more likely than chance to be followed by change talk, and 'other' counsellors' behaviours were more likely than chance to be followed by change talk and follow/neutral talk. In conclusion, all three types of counsellors' behaviours elicited change talk. This study re-emphasizes the link between MICO, change and sustain talk. The influence of MIIN and 'other' behaviours on change talk needs to be explored further. This study has implications for MI training and the need for counsellors to continuously develop skills or behaviours consistent with MI principles.