School-based organizational skills training for upper elementary students: Subgroup and mediating effects

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Child Psychology
• Intervention Science

Background:

• Students in grades 3-5 often struggle with organization, time management, and planning (OTMP) skills.
• Organizational Skills Training-Tier 2 (OST-T2) is an intervention designed to address these OTMP difficulties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate subgroup differences in the effectiveness of OST-T2 for students with OTMP difficulties.
• To examine whether improvements in OTMP skills mediate the impact of OST-T2 on academic and homework performance.

Main Methods:

• A cluster-randomized design involving 22 schools and 182 students for moderation and 133 for mediation analyses.
• Subgroup analyses considered ADHD diagnosis, caregiver-reported anxiety, baseline OTMP/homework problem severity, and socioeconomic level.
• Longitudinal assessments at post-intervention (14 weeks), short-term (22 weeks), and long-term follow-up (55 weeks).

Main Results:

• OST-T2 was more effective for students with higher levels of caregiver-reported anxiety.
• No significant subgroup effects were detected based on ADHD diagnostic status or family socioeconomic level.
• Improvements in OTMP skills significantly mediated the effect of OST-T2 on homework performance.

Conclusions:

• OST-T2 shows particular promise for students with elevated anxiety levels.
• The intervention's positive effects on homework performance are largely explained by improvements in students' organizational skills.
• Further longitudinal research with larger samples is recommended to explore subgroup effects more deeply.