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儿童向学校过渡（kit）干预的长期影响，该干预旨在提高寄养儿童的入学准备。拟议的研究是最初的kit疗效试验的延续，其中192名儿童及其照顾者被随机分配到kit （n = 102）或寄养比较条件（n = 90）。kit干预是根据寄养儿童的需求量身定制的，因为它是短暂而密集的（为了适应由于安置变化而产生的高流动性），并且在进入幼儿园的关键过渡之前的夏季进行（为了防止夏季技能的丧失）。此外，该干预基于一个发育转化模型，该模型得到了先前研究证据的支持，该模型明确了从早期逆境到随后结果的途径，这些途径是通过可调节的环境因素（例如，养育实践）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层区域）介导的。即时干预对早期读写能力、行为和情绪调节能力的影响已在最初的疗效试验中得到证实。在本研究中，我们将考察干预对小学学校功能（学业和社会情感能力）和心理社会功能（吸毒风险行为、吸毒、攻击/反社会行为、异常同伴交往和内化行为）的影响。本研究的一个特别重点是药物使用风险行为；过去的研究将更好的学校功能与较低的吸毒意图和较晚的吸毒年龄联系起来。这项研究的第二个目的是检查这些孩子进入中学后的子样本。我们还将研究关键神经调节系统和早期逆境影响的护理特征以及对学校和社会心理功能的干预的中介作用。最后，我们将进行成本效益分析，以测试在学术和社会心理领域的每个改善单位的干预成本是否低于常规服务的成本。我们建议对这些孩子进行为期5年的数据收集。将在每个学年结束时收集多方法、多代理的数据，一直收集到小学（儿童的子样本将收集到中学）。在计划的研究期结束时，所有的孩子都将完成五年级的学习，而这些孩子的子样本将完成六年级和七年级的学习。

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.