Long-Term Effects of a School Readiness Intervention for Foster Children

描述(由申请人提供)：拟议研究的目标是检查过渡到学校的儿童(KITS)干预的长期影响，该干预旨在提高寄养儿童的入学准备。这项拟议的研究是最初试剂盒功效试验的继续，在该试验中，192名儿童及其照顾者被随机分配到试剂盒(n=102)或寄养比较条件(n=90)。工具包干预是为寄养儿童的需要量身定做的，因为它是短暂和密集的(为了适应由于安置变化而导致的高流动性)，并被安排在关键的幼儿园过渡之前的夏天进行(以防止在夏天失去技能)。此外，干预基于发育转换模型，并得到先前研究证据的支持，该模型指定了从早期逆境到后续结果的路径，这些路径通过可塑性环境因素(例如，育儿实践)和潜在的神经调节系统(例如，下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺轴和参与执行功能的前额叶皮质区域)进行调节。在最初的疗效试验中，即时干预对早期识字技能以及行为和情绪调节能力的影响已经被证明。在这项拟议的研究中，我们将考察对小学学校功能(学业和社会情绪能力)和心理社会功能(吸毒危险行为、药物使用、攻击性/反社会行为、越轨同伴交往和内化行为)的干预效果。这项研究的一个特别重点是吸毒危险行为；过去的研究已经将更好的学校功能与较低的吸毒意图和较晚的入门年龄联系在一起。这项研究的第二个目的是检查孩子们进入中学后的结果。我们还将研究关键神经调节系统和照料特征对早期逆境的影响的中介作用以及对学校和心理社会功能的干预。最后，我们将进行成本效益分析，以检验在学术和心理社会领域每个改善单位的干预成本是否低于通常服务的成本。我们建议对孩子们进行为期5年的数据收集。多方法、多代理人数据将在每个学年结束时收集到小学(对于儿童的子样本，将收集到中学)。到拟议的研究期结束时，所有儿童都将完成五年级，儿童的部分样本将完成六年级和七年级。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of the proposed research is to examine the longer-term effects of the Kids in Transition to School (KITS) intervention, which was designed to enhance school readiness in foster children. The proposed study is a continuation of the original KITS efficacy trial, in which 192 children and their caregivers were randomly assigned to the KITS (n = 102) or the foster care comparison condition (n = 90). The KITS intervention is tailored to the needs of foster children in that it is brief and intensive (to accommodate high mobility due to placement changes) and timed to occur during the summer before the critical transition into kindergarten (to prevent the loss of skills during the summer). Additionally, the intervention is based on a developmental translational model, supported by evidence from prior studies, that specifies pathways from early adversity to subsequent outcomes that are mediated through malleable environmental factors (e.g., parenting practices) and underlying neuroregulatory systems (e.g., the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis and regions of the prefrontal cortex involved in executive functioning). Immediate intervention effects on early literacy skills and behavioral and emotion regulation abilities have been demonstrated in the original efficacy trial. In the proposed study, we will examine intervention effects on school functioning (academic and socioemotional competence) and psychosocial functioning (drug-use risk behaviors, drug use, aggressive/antisocial behaviors, deviant peer association, and internalizing behavior) across elementary school. A particular emphasis of this research is drug-use risk behaviors; past research has linked better school functioning to lower intentions to use drugs and later ages at initiation. A secondary aim of the study is to examine outcomes into middle school for subsamples of the children. We will also examine the mediation by key neuroregulatory systems and caregiving characteristics of the effects of early adversity and the intervention on school and psychosocial functioning. Finally, we will conduct cost effectiveness analyses to test whether the cost of the intervention per improvement unit in academic and psychosocial domains is less than the cost of usual services. We propose to follow the children through 5 years of data collection. Multimethod, multiagent data will be collected at the end of every school year through elementary school (and into middle school for subsamples of the children). By the end of the proposed study period, all of the children will have completed fifth grade, and subsamples of the children will have completed sixth and seventh grades.