Help-agents' views about clinical interactions with acting-out children

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Educational Interventions
• Behavioral Management

Background:

• Nonprofessional child-aides often work with children exhibiting acting-out behaviors.
• Effective strategies are needed to support aides in managing challenging child behaviors.
• Ginottian limit-setting approaches offer a framework for addressing such behaviors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe a scale measuring child-aides' views and practices with acting-out children.
• To evaluate a training program using Ginottian limit-setting approaches.
• To assess the impact of training on aides' attitudes, feelings, and behaviors.

Main Methods:

• Development and use of a scale to assess child-aide perspectives and practices.
• Implementation of a training program focused on Ginottian limit-setting.
• Comparison of trained aides (n=19) with a control group of nontrained aides (n=44).

Main Results:

• Trained aides demonstrated significantly higher postprogram scale scores.
• Improvements were observed in opinions, beliefs, feelings, and observed playroom behaviors.
• Item analysis revealed increased comfort and a broader range of techniques for managing acting-out children.

Conclusions:

• The training program positively influenced child-aides' approaches to working with acting-out children.
• Enhanced comfort and technique repertoire are likely key factors in improved effectiveness.
• The developed scale effectively measured changes in aides' views and practices post-training.