Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, Vol 56(3), Jun 2025, 201-210; doi:10.1037/pro0000621
The implementation of evidence-based psychotherapeutic treatments continues to lag behind the needs of most communities. To increase access to evidence-based mental health care, more effective and efficient training is required for practicing clinicians. Online clinician training offers a potential solution to many of the barriers to the dissemination of evidence-based interventions, yet little research exists to support its effectiveness. We evaluated online training of the basic knowledge and skills of an evidence-based parenting intervention, parent–child interaction therapy, by comparing three training formats: online synchronous, online asynchronous, and written materials only. Sixty-nine clinicians were randomly assigned to and completed one of the training modalities, as well as pre- and posttraining questionnaires and behavioral observation measures. Participants who completed the synchronous or asynchronous online training demonstrated significantly greater child-centered skills, parent–child interaction coding accuracy, and training satisfaction than those in the written materials group. Participants in the synchronous training group were more likely to complete the training than those in the asynchronous or written materials group. Our findings support the use of brief online synchronous and asynchronous training programs to teach intervention knowledge and essential skills. While brief online intervention training is likely to improve knowledge and basic skills, more active and comprehensive training is likely required to prepare clinicians for competent intervention implementation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)