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Preventing Behavioral Disorders via Supporting Social and Emotional Competence at Preschool Age
Annika Schell1, Lucia Albers, Rüdiger von Kries
1Department of Special Needs Education and Rehabilitation, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Institute of Social Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Cologne.
Insights
A social training program for preschoolers significantly improved social-cognitive problem-solving skills and prosocial behavior. This intervention effectively reduced behavioral problems in kindergarten children.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Early Childhood Education
- Behavioral Intervention
Background:
- Preschool behavioral problems affect 13-18% of children, potentially leading to long-term issues.
- The "Lubo from Outer Space" social training program was evaluated in a kindergarten setting.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effectiveness of the "Lubo from Outer Space" social training program for preschoolers.
- To assess improvements in social-cognitive problem-solving, prosocial behavior, and reduction of problematic behavior.
Main Methods:
- 15 kindergartens were randomized into intervention and control groups (2:1 ratio).
- The intervention targeted emotional knowledge, regulation, perspective-taking, communication, and social problem-solving.
- Outcomes were measured using the Wally Social Skills and Problem Solving Game, Preschool Social Behavior Questionnaire (PSBQ), and Caregiver-Teacher Report Form (C-TRF) pre- and post-intervention, and at 5-month follow-up.
Main Results:
- Despite initial randomization imbalances, the intervention group showed greater improvement in social-cognitive problem-solving strategies (0.79 SD).
- These improvements were sustained at 5-month follow-up (0.63 SD).
- Prosocial behavior also significantly improved in the intervention group (0.37 SD on PSBQ).
Conclusions:
- The "Lubo from Outer Space" program is an effective, age-appropriate intervention for preventing behavioral disorders in kindergarten children.
- The program successfully enhanced children's understanding and application of prosocial problem-solving strategies and improved their prosocial behavior.
Background:
13-18% of all preschool children have severe behavioral problems at least transiently, sometimes with long-term adverse consequences. In this study, the social training program "Lubo aus dem All! - Vorschulalter" (Lubo from Outer Space, Preschool Version) was evaluated in a kindergarten setting.
Methods:
15 kindergartens were randomly assigned to either an intervention group or a control group, in a 2:1 ratio. The intervention was designed to strengthen emotional knowledge and regulation, the ability to take another person's point of view, communication skills, and social problem solving. The control group continued with conventional kindergarten activities. The primary endpoint was improvement in social-cognitive problem solving strategies, as assessed with the Wally Social Skills and Problem Solving Game (Wally). Secondary endpoints were improvement in prosocial behavior and reduction in problematic behavior, as assessed with the Preschool Social Behavior Questionnaire (PSBQ) and the Caregiver-Teacher Report Form (C-TRF). Data were collected before and after the intervention and also 5 months later. Mixed models were calculated with random effects to take account of the cluster design and for adjustment for confounding variables.
Results:
221 children in kindergarten, aged 5-6 years, were included in the study. Randomization was unsuccessful: the children in the intervention group performed markedly worse on the tests carried out before the intervention. Five months after the end of the intervention, the social-cognitive problem solving strategies of the children in the intervention group had improved more than those of the children in the control group: the intergroup difference in improvement was 0.79 standard deviations of the Wally test (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.13-1.46). This effect was just as marked 5 months later (0.63, 95% CI 0.03-1.23). Prosocial behavior, as measured by the PSBQ, also improved more in the intervention group, with an intergroup difference of 0.37 standard deviations (95% CI 0.05-0.71).
Conclusion:
An age-appropriate program to prevent behavioral disorders among kindergarten children improved both the children's knowledge of prosocial problem solving strategies and their prosocial behavior.
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