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Testing the impact of a social skill training versus waiting list control group for the reduction of disruptive behaviors and stress among preschool children in child care: the study protocol for a cluster randomized trial

BACKGROUND: Most preschoolers growing up in western industrialized countries receive child care services (CCS) during the day, while their parents are at work. Meta-analytic data suggest that CCS represent a stressful experience for preschoolers. This may be because preschoolers have not yet develop...

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Autores principales: Côté, Sylvana M., Larose, Marie-Pier, Geoffroy, Marie Claude, Laurin, Julie, Vitaro, Frank, Tremblay, Richard E., Ouellet-Morin, Isabelle
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5545840/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28784179
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40359-017-0197-9
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author Côté, Sylvana M.
Larose, Marie-Pier
Geoffroy, Marie Claude
Laurin, Julie
Vitaro, Frank
Tremblay, Richard E.
Ouellet-Morin, Isabelle
author_facet Côté, Sylvana M.
Larose, Marie-Pier
Geoffroy, Marie Claude
Laurin, Julie
Vitaro, Frank
Tremblay, Richard E.
Ouellet-Morin, Isabelle
author_sort Côté, Sylvana M.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Most preschoolers growing up in western industrialized countries receive child care services (CCS) during the day, while their parents are at work. Meta-analytic data suggest that CCS represent a stressful experience for preschoolers. This may be because preschoolers have not yet developed the social skills necessary to cope with the new and rapidly fluctuating social contexts of CCS. We tested the effectiveness of a child care-based social skill training program aiming to improve children’s social behaviors and reduce the stress they experience. METHOD AND DESIGN: We used a cluster randomized control trial (cRCT) to compare children’s social behaviors and stress levels in pre- and post-intervention according to whether they received a social skill training intervention or not. Nineteen (n = 19) public CCS (n = 362, 3-years-old preschoolers) of underprivileged neighborhoods (Montreal, Canada) were randomized to one of two conditions: 1) social skills training (n = 10 CCS); or 2) waiting list control group (n = 9 CCS). Educators in the intervention group conducted bi-weekly social skills training sessions over a period of 8 months. The intervention covered four topics: making social contacts, problem solving, emotional self-regulation, as well as emotional expression and recognition. Main outcome measures included preschoolers’ disruptive (e.g. aggression, opposition, conflicts) and prosocial behaviors (e.g. sharing toys, helping another child), and stress levels assessed by salivary cortisol sampling at pre and post intervention assessments. Educators’ practices will be tested as potential mediators of the expected changes in behaviors and neuroendocrine stress. DISCUSSION: To our knowledge, this is the first cRCT to test the effectiveness of a child care based social skill training program on the reduction of disruptive behaviors and levels of stress. Significant challenges include the degree of adherence to the intervention protocol as well educators and preschoolers’ turnover. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current clinical trial number is ISRCTN84339956 (Ongoing study, Retrospectively registered on March 2017) No amendment to initial protocol. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40359-017-0197-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-55458402017-08-09 Testing the impact of a social skill training versus waiting list control group for the reduction of disruptive behaviors and stress among preschool children in child care: the study protocol for a cluster randomized trial Côté, Sylvana M. Larose, Marie-Pier Geoffroy, Marie Claude Laurin, Julie Vitaro, Frank Tremblay, Richard E. Ouellet-Morin, Isabelle BMC Psychol Study Protocol BACKGROUND: Most preschoolers growing up in western industrialized countries receive child care services (CCS) during the day, while their parents are at work. Meta-analytic data suggest that CCS represent a stressful experience for preschoolers. This may be because preschoolers have not yet developed the social skills necessary to cope with the new and rapidly fluctuating social contexts of CCS. We tested the effectiveness of a child care-based social skill training program aiming to improve children’s social behaviors and reduce the stress they experience. METHOD AND DESIGN: We used a cluster randomized control trial (cRCT) to compare children’s social behaviors and stress levels in pre- and post-intervention according to whether they received a social skill training intervention or not. Nineteen (n = 19) public CCS (n = 362, 3-years-old preschoolers) of underprivileged neighborhoods (Montreal, Canada) were randomized to one of two conditions: 1) social skills training (n = 10 CCS); or 2) waiting list control group (n = 9 CCS). Educators in the intervention group conducted bi-weekly social skills training sessions over a period of 8 months. The intervention covered four topics: making social contacts, problem solving, emotional self-regulation, as well as emotional expression and recognition. Main outcome measures included preschoolers’ disruptive (e.g. aggression, opposition, conflicts) and prosocial behaviors (e.g. sharing toys, helping another child), and stress levels assessed by salivary cortisol sampling at pre and post intervention assessments. Educators’ practices will be tested as potential mediators of the expected changes in behaviors and neuroendocrine stress. DISCUSSION: To our knowledge, this is the first cRCT to test the effectiveness of a child care based social skill training program on the reduction of disruptive behaviors and levels of stress. Significant challenges include the degree of adherence to the intervention protocol as well educators and preschoolers’ turnover. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current clinical trial number is ISRCTN84339956 (Ongoing study, Retrospectively registered on March 2017) No amendment to initial protocol. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40359-017-0197-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2017-08-07 /pmc/articles/PMC5545840/ /pubmed/28784179 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40359-017-0197-9 Text en © The Author(s). 2017 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Study Protocol
Côté, Sylvana M.
Larose, Marie-Pier
Geoffroy, Marie Claude
Laurin, Julie
Vitaro, Frank
Tremblay, Richard E.
Ouellet-Morin, Isabelle
Testing the impact of a social skill training versus waiting list control group for the reduction of disruptive behaviors and stress among preschool children in child care: the study protocol for a cluster randomized trial
title Testing the impact of a social skill training versus waiting list control group for the reduction of disruptive behaviors and stress among preschool children in child care: the study protocol for a cluster randomized trial
title_full Testing the impact of a social skill training versus waiting list control group for the reduction of disruptive behaviors and stress among preschool children in child care: the study protocol for a cluster randomized trial
title_fullStr Testing the impact of a social skill training versus waiting list control group for the reduction of disruptive behaviors and stress among preschool children in child care: the study protocol for a cluster randomized trial
title_full_unstemmed Testing the impact of a social skill training versus waiting list control group for the reduction of disruptive behaviors and stress among preschool children in child care: the study protocol for a cluster randomized trial
title_short Testing the impact of a social skill training versus waiting list control group for the reduction of disruptive behaviors and stress among preschool children in child care: the study protocol for a cluster randomized trial
title_sort testing the impact of a social skill training versus waiting list control group for the reduction of disruptive behaviors and stress among preschool children in child care: the study protocol for a cluster randomized trial
topic Study Protocol
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5545840/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28784179
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40359-017-0197-9
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