Trial reportPsychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors2017
Working alliance and empathy as mediators of brief telephone counseling for cigarette smokers who are not ready to quit.
Trial report in Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Smoking reduction interventions for smoking cessation.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2019Pooled it
- Telephone counselling for smoking cessation.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2019Pooled it
- Conversational Chatbot for Cigarette Smoking Cessation: Results From the 11-Step User-Centered Design Development Process and Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2024Trial
- Differential mechanisms of change in motivational interviewing versus health education for smoking cessation induction.Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2021Trial
- Validating the working alliance inventory in a mobile health smoking cessation program: A quasi-experimental study among Mexican adults who smoke.Tobacco induced diseases · 2026Article
- Psychometric properties of an adapted working alliance scale among Latinos.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Efficacy of a conversational chatbot for cigarette smoking cessation: Protocol of the QuitBot full-scale randomized controlled trial.Contemporary clinical trials · 2024Article
- An exploration of attitudes regarding the use of a state tobacco Quitline for smoking cessation among low-income adults with a history of smoking.Tobacco prevention & cessation · 2024Article
- Empathy in patient-clinician interactions when using telecommunication: A rapid review of the evidence.PEC innovation · 2022Review
- Decídetexto: Mobile cessation support for Latino smokers. Study protocol for a randomized clinical trial.Contemporary clinical trials · 2020Article
- Feasibility and Acceptability of a Culturally- and Linguistically-Adapted Smoking Cessation Text Messaging Intervention for Latino Smokers.Frontiers in public health · 2020Article
- Identifying pathways to quitting smoking via telemedicine-delivered care.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2019Article
- Two brief valid measures of therapeutic alliance in counseling for tobacco dependence.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2018Article
- Confounding in statistical mediation analysis: What it is and how to address it.Journal of counseling psychology · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Working alliance and empathy are believed to be important components of counseling, although few studies have empirically tested this. We recently conducted a randomized controlled trial in which brief motivational and reduction counseling failed to increase the number of participants who made a quit attempt (QA) in comparison to usual care (i.e., brief advice to quit). Our negative findings could have been due to nonspecific factors. This secondary analysis used a subset of participants (n = 347) to test (a) whether, in comparison to usual care, brief telephone-based motivational or reduction counseling predicted greater working alliance or empathy; (b) whether changes in these nonspecific factors predicted an increased probability of a QA at a 6-month follow-up; and (c) whether counseling affected the probability of a QA via working alliance or empathy (i.e., mediation). Findings were similar for both active counseling conditions (motivational and reduction) versus usual care. In comparison to usual care, active counseling predicted greater working alliance (p < .001) and empathy (p < .05). Greater working alliance predicted a greater probability of a QA (p < .001) but, surprisingly, greater empathy predicted a decreased probability of a QA (p < .05) at the 6-month follow-up. Working alliance (p < .001) and empathy (p < .05) mediated the active counseling's effects on the probability of a QA. One explanation for our motivational and reduction interventions' failure to influence QAs in comparison to usual care is that working alliance and empathy had opposing effects on quitting. Our analyses illustrate how testing nonspecific factors as mediators can help explain why a treatment failed. (PsycINFO Database Record
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