Strategies for maintaining integrity of a behavioral intervention.

The purpose of this article is to address issues in maintaining the integrity of a behavioral intervention. Examples are provided from a recently completed study on how to train research staff and monitor the integrity of the intervention. In this exemplar, the integrity of the behavioral intervention was addressed by the design of the study and research staff training. Throughout the study, the integrity of the behavioral intervention was monitored by delineating a checklist of topics that must be addressed, critiquing audiotapes of the intervention, and discussing incomplete or missing elements with the research staff.