Head Start Classroom-based Approaches and Resources for Emotion and Social Skill Promotion (Head Start CARES)

MDRC2,670 enrolled

Overview

The purpose of this study was to deepen the evidence base for interventions that support the social-emotional skills that underlie children's engagement and attention to learning tasks by schools (learning behaviors) and their social interactions with teachers and peers (social behaviors). The study tested three theoretically-distinct approaches to enhancing children's social-emotional development, along with a comprehensive coaching and training model, on a large scale within the Head Start system.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

2,670

Conditions

Teacher Practice Child Social-Emotional Development

Interventions

Incredible Years Teacher TrainingBEHAVIORAL

Preschool PATHSBEHAVIORAL

Tools of the MindBEHAVIORAL

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 3 YearsMax age: 4 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Grantees had to have at least 4 centers with a similar racial/ethnic composition * An equal number of classrooms with full-day or part-day programs * And a similar mix of four-year-old-only and mixed-age (three-and four-year-old) classrooms. * Children had to speak English and Spanish. Exclusion Criteria: * A grantee was excluded from the sample if it: only ran early Head Start programs * Only served migrant children * Was located in a U.S. territory * Only or mostly provided family child care or home services * Was more than 100 miles from a "primary airport," * Operated fewer than 4 centers with two classrooms each * Had been in operation for less than 2 years * Was not in compliance with Head Start Standards * They were already systematically implementing a social-emotional curriculum or participating in another evaluation study.

Locations (1)

MDRC

New York, New York, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Classroom Climate: Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS)

Class-level outcome

Time frame: 0 to 12 months

Teacher Practice: Adapted Teaching Style Rating Scale (TSRS)

Class-level outcome

Time frame: 0 to 12 months

Executive Function: Head-to-Toes

Child-level outcome

Time frame: 0 to 12 months

Executive Function: Pencil Tap

Child-level outcome

Time frame: 0 to 12 months

Social Problem-Solving: Challenging Situations Task

Child-level outocme

Time frame: 0 to 12 months

Emotion Knowledge: Emotion Situations and Identification Tasks

Child-level outcome

Time frame: 0 to 12 months

Pre-Academic Skills: Academic Rating Scale

Child-level Outcome

Time frame: 0 to 12 months

Pre-Academic Skills: Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test

Child-level outcome

Time frame: 0 to 12 months

Pre-Academic Skills: Woodcock-Johnson III

Child-level outcome

Time frame: 0 to 12 months

Behavior Regulation: Behavior Problems Index

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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