The Efficacy of a Home-School Intervention for Preschoolers With Challenging Behaviors

Abstract

The field of early intervention is currently faced with the challenge of reducing the prevalence of antisocial behavior in children. Longitudinal outcomes research indicates that increased antisocial behavior and impairments in social competence skills during the preschool years often serve as harbingers of future adjustment problems in a number of domains including mental health, interpersonal relations, and academic achievement. This article reports the results of a cross-site randomized controlled trial, in which 128 preschool children with challenging behaviors were assigned to either a Preschool First Step to Success (PFS) intervention (i.e., experimental) or a usual-care (i.e., control) group. Regression analyses indicated that children assigned to the Preschool First Step intervention had significantly higher social skills, and significantly fewer behavior problems, across a variety of teacher- and parent-reported measures at postintervention. Effect sizes for teacher-reported effects ranged from medium to large across a variety of social competency indicators; effect sizes for parent-reported social skills and problem behaviors were small to medium, respectively. These results suggest that the preschool adaptation of the First Step intervention program provides early intervention participants, staff, and professionals with a viable intervention option to address emerging antisocial behavior and externalizing behavior disorders prior to school entry.

Early Intervention for Preschoolers at Risk for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Preschool First Step to Success

“…Participants for this study included a subsample of 45 of the original 126 child–parent–teacher triads from Head Start and preschool programs in Oregon, Kentucky, and Indiana who were participants in the original PFS randomized control trial (Feil et al, 2014). Project staff recruited these triads across three cohorts between 2009 and 2012.…”

“…More detail on these procedures is available in Feil et al (2014), but a brief overview is presented here. We obtained Institutional Review Board approval for the original study and then recruited and consented participating teachers and parents.…”

“…Although we did not report ADHD symptomology or functioning in our original main effects study (Feil et al, 2014), we had nonetheless collected data on such measures in anticipation of a subgroup or other moderator analysis. Consistent with recommendations by Rothwell (2005) for subgroup construction and analysis, we used parent and teacher report on the Conners’ ADHD Scales (CADS; Conners, 1999) to identify retrospectively the subsample of children at risk for ADHD in this study.…”

“…A preschool adaptation of the First Step intervention has recently been developed (Feil, Small et al, 2009; Frey et al, 2013). In this study, we attempted to assess the extent to which such a broad-based intervention might also potentially benefit a subsample of preschool children at risk for ADHD who were identified retrospectively as being at risk for ADHD in a large randomized controlled trial of Preschool First Step (PFS; Feil et al, 2014). …”

Efficacy Trial of Contrasting Approaches to the Response-Contingent Learning of Young Children with Significant Developmental Delays and Multiple Disabilities

“…The magnitudes of the improvement indices are larger than those reported for other types of early childhood interventions (e.g., Feil, Frey, Walker, & Forness, 2015;What Works Clearinghouse, 2006), and illustrate the value-added effects of asset-based compared to needs-based approaches to response-contingent intervention.…”