Preschool Program Associated With Better Social and Emotional Skills Years Later

Preschool enrichment program developed at Penn State promotes social and emotional skills that have positive results years later when in middle and high school, according to a new study. The findings of the study are published in the journal American Journal of Psychiatry. The researchers discovered that students attending Head Start preschools that implemented the Research-based, Developmentally Informed (REDI) program were less prone to experience behavioral difficulties, trouble with peers, and emotional manifestations like feeling anxious or depressed by the time they entered seventh and ninth grade.

Karen Bierman, Penn State Professor of Psychology, said she was encouraged that the students were still showing benefits from the program years later.

Bierman said, "The program affected internal benefits, including sounder emotion management and emotional well-being, as well as external benefits, such as decreased conduct problems." "Not only did the program result in less distressed adolescents, but also resulted in less distress for their teachers and peers, as well. It's a remarkable finding to know we can support these long-term advantages by intervening early with a strategic prevention programming rooted in a well-established public program like Head Start."

According to the researchers, existing in poverty is challenging for children and their families. The lack of resources and added stress raise the chance that a child may develop gaps in emotional, social, and language skills by the time they start school, placing them behind other children growing up in more well-resourced environments. Moreover, this gap tends to increase over time, putting children in low-income families at risk for developing behavioral and emotional problems when they enter adolescence.

But Bierman said earlier research has also shown that stronger early social-emotional and self-regulation skills can protect against these effects, generating an opportunity for preschool programs to promote close some of these gaps.

The REDI program was formulated at Penn State to build upon the current Head Start program, which gives preschool education to low-income children. The REDI program strives to enhance social and emotional skills and early language and literacy skills by using stories, puppets, and other exercises that introduce concepts like understanding feelings, cooperation, friendship, and self-control skills.

Bierman said the program utilizes a classroom curriculum known as Preschool PATHS, which stands for Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies.

Bierman said, "This program teaches skills like how to make friends, how to manage strong feelings and conflict, and how to be aware of your and others' feelings." "These programs are devised to enhance the child's ability to get along with others, manage their emotions, and promote coping skills."

She added that REDI also aids language development with daily interactive reading and discussion sessions that include children in talking through story characters' social and emotional difficulties.

The researchers identified 25 preschool centers partaking in Head Start for the study. After acquiring consent from the kid's parents, 356 children were cleared to participate in the study. Classrooms were randomly allocated to be part of the intervention group, which included the REDI program enhancements or the comparison group, which was directed to continue with the school year as usual.

Students were evaluated at the start and the end of the preschool year and at various checkpoints as they moved onto elementary, middle, and high school. For this study, teachers evaluated students during seventh and ninth grade on such factors as behavior problems, emotional traits, hyperactivity, inattention, and peer problems.

Bierman said, "After the children left preschool, they moved on to many different schools and school districts." "Once they reached 7th and 9th grade, their teachers who gave ratings for this study didn't know who had and hadn't been in the REDI classrooms. Therefore it was a blind rating."

After examining the data, the researchers discovered that the number of students with clinically notable levels of conduct issues, emotional traits, and peer difficulties was lower for children who had been in the Head Start classrooms performing the REDI program opposed to those in the Head Start classrooms without REDI enhancements.

By ninth grade, 6% of the REDI program students had ratings of very high conduct problems contrasted to 17% in the comparison group, and 3% of REDI program students had very high emotional symptoms compared to 15% in the comparison group. Additionally, 2% of REDI program students had very high peer problems compared to 8% in the comparison group.

Bierman said, "Teachers gave these ratings using clinical screening questionnaires, so students with very high difficulties may have problems significant enough to be referred for mental health treatment." "The main effect of the REDI program was to reduce the number of adolescents scoring in the highest risk category in adolescence and move them to a lower risk category."

The researchers said the results published today (Dec. 10) in the American Journal of Psychiatry recommend that programs like REDI can decrease the gaps in school readiness and mental health that can happen when early development is disadvantaged by economic hardship, lack of access to resources, and supports.

Bierman said, "We saw that the effects that continued through adolescence were not in the academic areas like literacy and math, but in the social-emotional areas." "Perhaps in the past, we've been too focused on boosting academic education in preschool and not paid enough attention to the importance of enriching preschool with the social-emotional supports that strengthen character and enhance school adjustment. We know from other research that these skills become essential in predicting overall accomplishment in graduating from high school, holding future employment, and promoting overall well-being in life."

Source-Medindia