First Step: Home/School Intervention for Preschoolers with Disruptive Behaviors

描述(由申请人提供)：精神卫生领域目前面临着减少儿童反社会行为流行率的挑战。患有品行障碍和对立违抗障碍的儿童需要付出巨大的努力才能得到补救。纵向研究表明，反社会行为的增加和社交能力技能的损害往往预示着未来在心理健康、人际关系、就业和学业成就等领域的适应问题。对美国、加拿大、澳大利亚、新西兰和欧洲青少年反社会行为模式演变的纵向研究表明，从早期暴露于家庭、社区和社区背景的风险因素，到学校的行为表现，再到青少年的犯罪和辍学，最后导致一系列成人适应问题，包括福利依赖、犯罪、婚姻困难、就业问题和较高的住院死亡率。至关重要的是，通过家长和照顾者、教师和同龄人参与的早期协调干预，使处于危险中的儿童在他们的生活和学校职业生涯中尽快偏离这条道路。学前班(如Head Start)是与家庭合作完成这项任务的理想场所。本申请概述了五年的研究和开发活动，这些活动将调整和评估第一步成功早期干预计划的有效性，以便有效地与服务于低收入儿童的儿童早期计划(例如，Head Start)一起使用。第一步是协作性的家庭和学校干预计划，由行为教练提供，持续约三个月，针对常规幼儿园课堂环境，旨在帮助高危儿童在学校职业生涯中有一个尽可能好的开端。第一步是早期干预，目的是在学校教育的背景下实现二级预防目标和结果。First Step计划的改编版本将为Head Start消费者、工作人员和专业人员提供经过验证的干预选项，该选项将产生以下好处：1)改善和/或消除严重的行为问题，如攻击性、反抗和其他新出现的反社会行为和外部性行为障碍的迹象，2)显著改善上学准备，以及3)改善目标儿童与父母和照顾者、教师和同龄人等关键社会代理人之间至关重要的关系。公共卫生相关性：本申请概述了五年的研究和开发活动，这些活动将调整和评估通向成功的第一步早期干预计划的有效性，以便有效地与儿童早期计划一起使用，如Head Start。这一学龄前版本的First Step计划将为Head Start消费者、工作人员和专业人员提供经过验证的干预选项，该选项将产生以下好处：1)改善和/或消除严重的行为问题，如攻击性、反抗和其他新出现的反社会行为和外部性行为障碍的迹象；2)显著改善上学准备；以及3)改善目标儿童与父母和照顾者、教师和同龄人等关键社会代理人之间至关重要的关系。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The mental health field is currently faced with the challenge of reducing the prevalence of antisocial behavior in children. Children with conduct and oppositional defiant disorders require a substantial effort for remediation. Longitudinal research indicates that increased antisocial behavior and impairments in social competence skills often serve as harbingers of future adjustment problems in a number of domains including mental health, interpersonal relations, employment, and academic achievement. Longitudinal studies of the progression of antisocial behavior patterns among youth in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Europe converge in showing a path leading from early exposure to risk factors in family, neighborhood and community contexts, to behavioral manifestations in school, to delinquency and school dropout in adolescence, and finally to a host of adult adjustment problems including welfare dependence, criminality, marital difficulties, employment problems and higher hospitalization-mortality rates. It is critical to divert at-risk children from this path as soon as possible in their lives and school careers through early, coordinated interventions involving parents and caregivers, teachers and peers. Preschool (e.g. Head Start) is an ideal setting for accomplishing this task in collaboration with families. This application outlines five years of research and development activities that will adapt and assess the efficacy of the First Step to Success early intervention program for effective use with early childhood programs serving low-income children (e.g., Head Start). First Step is a collaborative home and school intervention program, delivered by a behavioral coach and lasting approximately three months, that is geared for regular kindergarten classroom settings and designed to help at-risk children get off to the best start possible in their school careers. First Step is an early intervention designed to achieve secondary prevention goals and outcomes within the context of schooling. The adapted version of the First Step program would provide Head Start consumers, staff and professionals with a proven intervention option that will produce the following benefits: 1) amelioration and/or elimination of serious behavior problems such as aggression, opposition- defiance, and other indicators of emerging antisocial behavior and externalizing behavior disorders, 2) substantially improved school readiness, and 3) improvements in the target child's critically important relationships with the key social agents of parents and caregivers, teachers and peers. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This application outlines five years of research and development activities that will adapt and assess the efficacy of the First Step to Success early intervention program for effective use with early childhood programs, such as Head Start. This preschool version of the First Step program would provide Head Start consumers, staff and professionals with a proven intervention option that will produce the following benefits: 1) amelioration and/or elimination of serious behavior problems such as aggression, opposition- defiance, and other indicators of emerging antisocial behavior and externalizing behavior disorders, 2) substantially improved school readiness, and 3) improvements in the target child's critically important relationships with the key social agents of parents and caregivers, teachers and peers.