Promoting School Readiness Skills Through a Reflective Parenting Program

描述(由申请人提供)：通过幼儿教育计划解决低收入儿童和较富裕儿童在入学准备和学业成就方面的差距的努力取得了好坏参半的结果。这些发现使人们更广泛地考虑到，在支持儿童过渡到正规学校和他们的长期学业成功方面，哪些能力是必不可少的。越来越多的人认识到，入学准备是多维的，不仅包括学业前的技能，还包括行为、情感和社会能力。这一观点还强调，儿童与其父母、教师和同龄人的关系网络是根深蒂固的，旨在提高学业成绩的干预措施必须设法改善这些关系的质量。因此，人们对旨在促进更和谐的亲子关系的干预措施越来越感兴趣，在这种干预措施中，父母学会更多地考虑孩子的内在经历，对这些经历做出更少的本能反应，而更多地进行反思。这种干预措施对于面临多种可能影响照料的逆境的脆弱家庭来说可能特别有价值。本研究旨在对社区机构中接受幼儿教育服务的家庭实施和评估反思性育儿计划(RPP)。RPP是一种以中心为基础的、有时间限制的干预措施，旨在增强父母更好地理解和回应孩子的情感体验的能力，为加强孩子的行为和情绪调节奠定基础。该项目对240名儿童的英语和西班牙语父母进行了RPP的随机对照试验，这些父母在儿童研究所公司(CII)的幼儿教育服务中登记。父母将被随机分为英语组(n=60)、西班牙语RPP干预组(n=60)、英语组(n=60)或西班牙语对照组(n=60)。在参与研究期间，分配到控制组的父母及其子女将继续参加他们通过CII接受的任何其他服务(即照顾标准)。所有家庭将在干预前(T1)、干预后(T2)和9个月的随访(T3)时进行评估。 与对照组相比，我们假设：1)与对照组相比，参加RPP的父母的子女在情绪和行为调节方面表现出更大的改善；2)参加RPP的父母在父母反思功能方面的改善显著高于对照组，父母在养育压力方面的改善显著高于对照组；3)参与RPP的父母在亲子互动过程中的行为和情绪反应以及父母沟通方面的改善显著高于对照组；4)在9个月的随访期内，孩子、父母和亲子结果的改善将保持不变；5)参加RPP的父母和受过RPP培训的治疗师将报告高水平的满意度。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Efforts to address the disparities between low-income and more affluent children in school readiness and academic achievement through early childhood education (ECE) programs have yielded mixed results. Such findings have led to a broader consideration of what competencies are essential in supporting children's transition to formal schooling and their long-term academic success. There has been a growing recognition of school readiness as multidimensional, encompassing not just pre-academic skills, but behavioral, emotional, and social competencies as well. This perspective also emphasizes that children are embedded in a network of relationships with their parents, teachers, and peers, and that interventions aimed at enhancing school outcomes must seek to improve the quality of those relationships. Thus, there has been a growing interest in interventions that aim to promote a more attuned parent-child relationship, wherein parents learn to give greater consideration to their child's internal experiences, to respond less reflexively and more "reflectively" to these experiences. Such interventions may be especially valuable for vulnerable families facing a multitude of adversities that may compromise caregiving. This study aims to implement and evaluate the Reflective Parenting Program (RPP) with families receiving ECE services in a community agency. RPP is a center-based, time-limited intervention designed to enhance parents' capacity to better understand and respond to their child's affective experiences, setting the stage enhanced behavioral and emotional regulation in the child. This project entails a randomized control trial of RPP with 240 English and Spanish-speaking parents of children enrolled in ECE services at Children's Institute Incorporated (CII). Parents will be randomized to either an English-language (n=60) or Spanish-language RPP intervention group (n=60) or an English-language (n=60) or Spanish-language (n=60) Control Group. Parents assigned to the Control Group and their children will continue to participate in any other services they are receiving through CII (i.e., standard of care) during their participation in the study. All familie will be assessed at pre-intervention (T1), post-intervention (T2), and at a 9 month follow-up (T3). In comparison to the Control Group, we hypothesize that: 1) children of parents participating in RPP will show significantly greater improvements in emotional and behavioral regulation in comparison to children of parents in the Control Group; 2) parents participating in RPP will report significantly greater improvements in parental reflective functioning, and decreases in parenting stress than parents in the Control Group; 3) parents participating in RPP will demonstrate significantly greater improvements in behavioral and emotional responsiveness and parental communication during parent-child interactions; 4) improvements in child, parent, and parent-child outcomes will be maintained over the 9 month follow-up period; 5) parents participating in RPP and therapists trained in RPP will report high levels of satisfaction.