AUTHOR=Baker-Henningham Helen , Scott Yakeisha , Francis Taja , Walker Susan P. 

TITLE=Effects of a Teacher-Training Violence Prevention Program in Jamaican Preschools on Child Behavior, Academic Achievement, and School Attendance in Grade One of Primary School: Follow up of a Cluster Randomized Trial

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=12

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.652050

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2021.652050

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Objective:</bold> We evaluated the effect of a universal, teacher-training, violence-prevention program implemented in preschool, on high-risk children's behavior, achievement, and attendance in grade one of primary school.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> A cluster-randomized trial was conducted in 24 preschools in Kingston, Jamaica. Three children from each class with the highest level of teacher-reported conduct problems were recruited for evaluation of outcomes (<italic>n</italic> = 225 children). For this study, to increase power, we recruited an additional two children from each class with the next highest teacher-reported scores for conduct problems in preschool. In the final term of grade one of primary school, we assessed children's: (1) conduct problems and social skills at home and school, (2) academic achievement, language, and self-regulation skills, and (3) school attendance.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> 214/225 (95.1%) of the children evaluated in preschool were assessed in grade one of primary school; an additional 150 children were recruited to give 364 children (181 intervention, 183 control). Significant benefits of intervention were found for child academic achievement (Effect size (ES) = 0.23, <italic>p</italic> = 0.02), oral language (ES = 0.28, <italic>p</italic> = 0.006), self-regulation (ES = 0.25, <italic>p</italic> = 0.007), and school attendance (ES = 0.30, <italic>p</italic> = 0.003). No significant benefits were found for observed conduct problems (ES = −0.13, <italic>p</italic> = 0.16), and parent-reported conduct problems (ES = 0.10, <italic>p</italic> = 0.31) and social skills (ES = −0.07, <italic>p</italic> = 0.52). Benefits to teacher-reported conduct problems and social skills were significant at <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.1 (ES = −0.16, <italic>p</italic> = 0.09, and ES = 0.19, <italic>p</italic> = 0.06, respectively).</p><p><bold>Conclusion:</bold> A scalable intervention involving training preschool teachers in classroom behavior management and how to promote child social-emotional competence led to positive outcomes in primary school across multiple child developmental domains for high-risk children.</p>