Karen Bierman - US grants

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): This project consists of the continued implementation and evaluation of a developmentally based, long-term, comprehensive intervention designed to prevent conduct problems in adolescence. This array of conduct problems which escalate sharply during the adolescent years includes delinquency, psychological disorder, substance abuse, school failure and dropout, and risky sexual practices. The project is being carried out at four sites (Durham, NC/Duck; Nashville, TN/Vanderbilt; rural Pennsylvania/Penn State; and Seattle, WA/Univ. of Washington). Three successive cohorts of children are involved in the project. The screening procedure of Fast Track identified high-risk children in kindergarten by their early conduct problems at home and school. These kindergarten-age children were randomly assigned by school to an intervention control group. Intervention began in the first grade with high-risk children, their adult caretakers, and their teachers. The elementary school phase of the prevention program addressed six areas or risk and protective factors derived from the developmental model: parenting, child problem-solving and emotional coping skills, peer relations, classroom atmosphere and curriculum, academic achievement and home-school relations. Project results thus far indicate that the intervention has effectively improved parenting practices and children's social-cognitive skills, peer relations, reading achievement, and problem behavior at home and school during the elementary school years. The primary aims of this renewal proposal are: 1) to take these three cohorts through the transition-to-adolescence phase of the project, with an intensive intervention in the sixth and seventh grades and then with monitoring and facilitation of their progress through the tenth grade year; and 2) to evaluate the long-term outcomes of this intervention through the high school years. The adolescent phase of intervention emphasizes four protective factors: parental monitoring and positive involvement, protection from deviant peer influences, positive identity and social-cognitive processes, and academic achievement and commitment to school. The proposed adolescent program includes curriculum-based parent and youth sessions (grades 5-7), and individualized prevention services through grade 10 (e.g., academic tutoring, vocational development support, mentoring, consultation with teachers, and home-visiting). Using multiple sources of information on the five categories of adolescent problem behavior, evaluations of outcome will focus on the intervention's success in reducing the latency to onset, frequency, severity, and chronicity of these problems. Comparisons will continue to be made to a control group and to a normative sample representative of the four communities. Universal prevention effects on the classmates of the high-risk participants will also be examined over time.

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): This project consists of the continued implementation and evaluation of a developmentally based, long-term, comprehensive intervention designed to prevent conduct problems in adolescence. This array of conduct problems which escalate sharply during the adolescent years includes delinquency, psychological disorder, substance abuse, school failure and dropout, and risky sexual practices. The project is being carried out at four sites (Durham, NC/Duck; Nashville, TN/Vanderbilt; rural Pennsylvania/Penn State; and Seattle, WA/Univ. of Washington). Three successive cohorts of children are involved in the project. The screening procedure of Fast Track identified high-risk children in kindergarten by their early conduct problems at home and school. These kindergarten-age children were randomly assigned by school to an intervention control group. Intervention began in the first grade with high-risk children, their adult caretakers, and their teachers. The elementary school phase of the prevention program addressed six areas or risk and protective factors derived from the developmental model: parenting, child problem-solving and emotional coping skills, peer relations, classroom atmosphere and curriculum, academic achievement and home-school relations. Project results thus far indicate that the intervention has effectively improved parenting practices and children's social-cognitive skills, peer relations, reading achievement, and problem behavior at home and school during the elementary school years. The primary aims of this renewal proposal are: 1) to take these three cohorts through the transition-to-adolescence phase of the project, with an intensive intervention in the sixth and seventh grades and then with monitoring and facilitation of their progress through the tenth grade year; and 2) to evaluate the long-term outcomes of this intervention through the high school years. The adolescent phase of intervention emphasizes four protective factors: parental monitoring and positive involvement, protection from deviant peer influences, positive identity and social-cognitive processes, and academic achievement and commitment to school. The proposed adolescent program includes curriculum-based parent and youth sessions (grades 5-7), and individualized prevention services through grade 10 (e.g., academic tutoring, vocational development support, mentoring, consultation with teachers, and home-visiting). Using multiple sources of information on the five categories of adolescent problem behavior, evaluations of outcome will focus on the intervention's success in reducing the latency to onset, frequency, severity, and chronicity of these problems. Comparisons will continue to be made to a control group and to a normative sample representative of the four communities. Universal prevention effects on the classmates of the high-risk participants will also be examined over time.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Working in partnership with Head Start administrators, teachers and staff, an investigative team of developmental and educational psychologists seek funds for a planning grant to support five specific aims: 1) extend and refine an integrated Head Start curriculum designed to enhance the school readiness of participating children by incorporating components to promote emergent literacy skills, social-emotional competence and self-regulation, and language development, 2) develop and evaluate training, support, and professional development activities for Head Start teachers and staff, 3) adapt and evaluate the effectiveness of a classroom-based, inclusion model for delivering an adaptive language support program, 4) expand the investigative team and community-university partnership network, and 5) develop the evaluation methodology for a large-scale, randomized field trial. The proposed one-year planning phase would lay the foundation for a future, large-scale trial, designed both to: 1) extend and evaluate the effectiveness of the integrated curriculum model, and 2) better understand processes associated with effective program functioning and positive child and family responding, thus enhancing our broader knowledge base concerning effective programs and practices in early childhood education.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project consists of the implementation and evaluation of a developmentally based intervention program integrated into existing Head Start programs in order to promote the school readiness of socioeconomically disadvantaged children. Forty Head Start classrooms will be randomly assigned to the enriched intervention Head Start (Head Start REDI - Research-based Developmentally Informed) or to "usual practice" Head Start. Using a longitudinal study design, a sample of 320 children will be assessed annually over a four-year period (pre-test at age 3; post-test at age 4; follow-up assessments at age S and age 6, at the end of kindergarten and first-grade, respectively). The developmental trajectories and early elementary school adjustment of 160 children attending 20 Head Start-REDI classrooms will be compared to those of 160 children attending 20 "usual practice" Head Start classrooms. The enrichment intervention will utilize brief lessons, "hands on" extension activities, and specific teaching strategies linked empirically with the promotion of: 1) language development and emergent literacy skills, and 2) social-emotional competencies. Take-home materials will be provided to parents to enhance support for skill development at home and to foster parent-teacher involvement. Assessments of child outcomes will include multi-method, multi-informant measures of child social-emotional competencies, oral language skills, emergent literacy skills, cognitive abilities, and behavior problems. Teaching processes will be measured to assess program fidelity and relation to child outcomes. Analyses will assess: 1) the impact of intervention on child skill development and later school adjustment and achievement, 2) the relation between teaching practices (intervention fidelity and general teaching strategies) and child skill development and school adjustment, 3) the potential moderation of intervention effects by child characteristics, 4) the potential mediation of school adjustment by preschool gains in child language/literacy skills and social-emotional competencies, and 5) the use and impact of parent take-home materials. In addition, the proposed project will include activities designed to promote the sustainability and dissemination of the intervention.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal is to complete the evaluation of a developmentally based, long-term, comprehensive intervention designed to prevent serious antisocial behavior and related adolescent problems. The project is being carried out at four sites (Durham, NC/Duke University; Nashville, TN/Vanderbilt University; rural Pennsylvania/Pennsylvania State University; and Seattle, WA/University of Washington). The screening procedure of Fast Track identified three successive cohorts of high-risk children in kindergarten by their early conduct problems at home and school. These children were randomly assigned by school to an intervention or control group. Intervention began in first grade with high-risk children, their adult caretakers, and their teachers based on a developmental model that specified six areas of risk and protective factors: parenting, child problem-solving and emotional coping skills, peer relations, classroom atmosphere, academic achievement, and home-school relations. It was continued in adolescence with an emphasis on protection from deviant peer influence; promoting positive identity, goals, and aspirations; and academic and vocational skill development. Analyses indicate the intervention has led to significant improvements in the hypothesized risk and protective factors and reductions in conduct problem behavior over the elementary school years. The primary aims of this proposal are: 1) to complete the assessments in the last 2 years of high school and the 2 years immediately after high school in order to evaluate intervention effects on mental health, crime, substance abuse, education and employment, and the use of community services; 2) to determine whether characteristics of the participant sample moderated the effects of the intervention; 3) to understand factors that mediate successful preventive intervention; 4) to identify factors influencing participation and the relation between dosage and outcome; 5) to continue to test the developmental model of early and late-starting conduct problems with the normative and high-risk samples; 6) to continue to develop innovative methods for analyzing data from prevention trials; and 7) to provide data for an economic study of the impact of Fast Track on professional service utilization. The data collection plan calls for completion of annual parent and youth assessments at the end of 11th (cohort 3) and 12th grades (cohorts 2 and 3); a phone interview 1 year after the end of high school; and a face-to-face interview at age 20 that will provide a final assessment of mental health status, conduct problem behavior, substance use, educational progress, and employment status at the end of the teenage years (all cohorts).

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This competing continuation proposal describes the next steps in a program of research initiated in 2003, entitled the Head Start REDI (Research based, Developmentally Informed) project. The REDI project was designed to enhance the impact of Head Start on child school readiness by promoting teachers' capacities to integrate empirically-based instructional strategies with their ongoing programming. Two domains of school readiness were targeted: 1) language development/emergent literacy skills, and 2) social-emotional competencies. The initial randomized trial (involving 356 children from 44 Head Start classrooms) demonstrated improvements in teaching quality in REDI classrooms, based upon observer ratings of language use, instructional support, and emotion coaching. In addition, children who received REDI showed enhanced vocabulary, emergent literacy skills, social competence, and learning engagement, and reduced aggression at the end of the Head Start year, relative to children attending usual practice Head Start classrooms. This proposal for continuation has two major aims. The first aim is to conduct follow-up assessments with children who participated in the initial trial to evaluate the long-term effects of the REDI program on child school adjustment in the later elementary years (grades 3 and 5.) In the context of this aim, we also plan to examine transactional influences over time between trajectories of skill gains in child language/literacy skills and social-emotional competencies, and to explore potential moderation of sustained program effects as a function of early elementary school context (i.e., instructional quality, classroom context, and teacher-student relationship quality). The second major aim of this proposal is to evaluate the added benefit of a parent-focused extension of the REDI program using a randomized controlled design with a new sample of 200 children attending Head Start classrooms in the original counties. Building upon the Head Start tradition of parent involvement, the goal of this parent-focused extension of REDI is to improve cross-setting support for child language and social-emotional skill development during the Head Start year and provide transition support for children as they move from Head Start into kindergarten. Longitudinal assessments of this new sample will extend over a three-year period (pre-test at age 4; post-test at the end of kindergarten, and follow-up assessment at the end of first-grade). Multi-method, multi-informant measures will be used to assess the impact of the parent-focused extension of REDI on children s oral language skills, emergent literacy skills, learning engagement, social-emotional competencies and behavior problems. We also will evaluate program impact on the targeted parenting practices and determine the degree to which they mediate child outcomes. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Children growing up in poverty are particularly likely to enter school without the language and social-emotional skills they need to adapt and achieve, placing them at risk for increasing delays in academic attainment, along with behavioral difficulties that have long-term deleterious effects. This research evaluates the short- and long- term impact of infusing research-based instructional strategies into Head Start programs in ways that support both teachers and parents, and that promote child language and social-emotional readiness skills, and thereby enhance child readiness for school and foster school attainment. The focus on evaluation and extension of a school readiness program targeted to poor children is highly significant. Results could provide improved strategies for intervening with such high risk populations.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Project Summary Impaired social functioning during the preschool years is common feature of many of the neurodevelopmental disorders. Whereas most preschool children are forming first friendships and progressing from parallel to complex and coordinated dramatic play, children with neurodevelopmental disorders often lack the inhibitory control, attention focus, emotion regulation, and empathic social responsiveness needed for effective social collaboration. Preschool social impairment predicts significant difficulties in later learning, peer relations, and social-emotional functioning, making early, preventive intervention a priority. Three recent studies have demonstrated that classroom-level interventions designed to enhance the social-emotional learning and self- regulation skills of preschool children can improve social collaboration skills and, concurrently, strengthen neurocognitive executive functioning as it develops (Bierman, Nix, Greenberg, Domitrovich &Blair, in press;Diamond, Barnett, Thomas &Munro, 2007;Riggs, Greenberg, Kusche &Pentz, 2006). These intervention techniques may hold considerable promise for preventing or reducing the difficulties experienced by children with neurocognitive disorders, if delivered during the preschool years in an intensive format that provides extensive support for skill development. Based upon a social-cognitive neuroscience developmental model, the proposed study will develop and refine an intervention called Patterned and Intentional Play Sequence [PIPS] Coaching. This new intervention will utilize small group social experiences, structured around activities and games that are organized developmentally to elicit and support increasingly complex social collaboration, with therapist "coaching" to support social responsively and self-regulation skills. We will evaluate the efficacy of this intervention in a rigorous, randomized-controlled, phase 1 clinical trial involving 128 4-year-old children with emerging ADHD. Multi-method measures (including direct child assessments, observations, and teacher and parent ratings) will assess intervention impact on proximal outcomes (preschool social competencies, EF skills, learning engagement) and on distal outcomes (kindergarten school adjustment and reduced ADHD symptomatology).

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In the first trial, 44 Head Start classrooms were randomly assigned to the REDI intervention or usual practice and 356 4-year-old children were followed from prekindergarten into elementary school. The classroom program enhanced teaching quality and promoted improvements in child vocabulary, emergent literacy skills, social competence, learning engagement, and reduced aggression at the end of Head Start. Sustained benefits were documented in kindergarten and second grade, with improved social-emotional functioning still evident for some subgroups at the end of fifth grade. The first aim of the proposed study is to assess the long term impact of the REDI classroom program by conducting follow-up assessments with the participants in grades 9 and 11, and testing the hypothesis that the improved social-emotional functioning and self-regulation skills promoted by REDI will mediate long term effects on academic attainment and reductions in risky behaviors in adolescence. In 2009, a second REDI trial was initiated. A new sample of 210 children attending Head Start REDI classrooms were randomly assigned to receive a complementary REDI home visiting program or usual practice Head Start home visiting. The REDI home visiting program promoted improvements in child social competence, self- directed learning and academic competence in kindergarten with sustained effects evident in second grade. The second aim of the proposed study is to assess the longer-term impact of the REDI home visiting program by conducting follow-up assessments with the 210 participants in grades 5 and 7, and testing the hypothesis that improved parent support and parent-child communication will mediate program effects on later child outcomes. The third aim is to explore the impact of the school context on the long term outcomes of the REDI classroom and home visiting programs. Analyses of the REDI classroom program revealed some moderation in elementary school, with benefits amplified in schools characterized by low levels of student achievement

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The central goal of this study is to enhance the capacity of child-care centers serving socioeconomically disadvantaged communities to implement evidence-based curriculum components and teaching practices that promote school readiness. A related goal is to test the efficacy of a sustainable, technology-assisted platform fo professional development support, Better Kid Care (BKC), managed by Cooperative Extension. 72 child-care centers will be recruited from more than 372 eligible centers serving low income children in 7 economically stressed counties in Pennsylvania. These centers struggle to provide evidence-based educational programming, despite an interest in doing so, due to low levels of teacher education, high staff turnover, and inadequate access to curriculum materials and professional development support. Participants will include 72 child care center directors, approximately 200 classroom teachers, and approximately 600 4-year-old prekindergarten children. The curriculum components and teaching strategies of the REDI (Research-based, Developmentally Informed) program will be used, including the Preschool PATHS Curriculum to promote social-emotional learning, and three evidence-based components (i.e., dialogic reading, phonological awareness training, and alphabet center activities) to foster language-emergent literacy skills. The technology-assisted distance learning platform of BKC will be used to extend professional development support. Classroom teachers will be able to access brief tutorials with videos demonstrating how to deliver lessons and illustrating high-quality teaching practices. In addition, center directors will be trained to serve as local coaches, thereby providing a foundation for program sustainability in the face of high teacher turnover. The BKC platform will be used to support virtual learning communities of child-care center directors, who will be trained to monitor the fidelity of program implementation and coach teachers in the application of the curriculum components and teaching strategies. The evaluation will use a rigorous, randomized-controlled design, with multi- method measurement of child and teacher outcomes; it will assess short-term sustainability in the child care centers and follow children as they transition to kindergarten.

Parents exert a strong influence on the development of foundational science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) skills in early childhood. This influence occurs, in large part, through playful parent-child interactions and conversations that expose children to mathematical and spatial concepts in interesting and useful ways. For example, parents of preschool children are often encouraged to use puzzles, board games, and construction activities to foster children's spatial thinking and early math skills. However, mastery-oriented toys like these typically elicit highly structured interactions, with parents directing children to follow explicit step-by-step instructions and game rules. Although this kind of parent-directed play can build content knowledge in STEM, it does little to encourage the kind of intrinsically-motivated discovery, generative collaboration, and creative problem-solving skills that support STEM education and attainment. This research in service to practice project seeks to understand how parents can play with their preschool children in ways that build children's STEM skills while also supporting children's social-emotional skills. As such, this research has the potential for advancing knowledge on effective strategies for enriching informal learning opportunities in under-resourced and sparsely populated communities where access to children's museums and other informal learning institutions is limited.

Over a period of three years, approximately 135 children and parents from a rural Appalachian community are expected to participate in this research, which is organized into three phases. During Phase 1, human-centered design processes will be used to develop and refine play guides and parent scaffolds that promote productive pretend play, which is characterized by joyful and creative problem-solving and rich parent/child conversations featuring mathematical and spatial concepts and reasoning. In Phase 2, measures will be developed and validated to operationalize and code this kind of productive parent-child play and play guides will be tested and refined in a local children's museum. In the final phase, a formal field test will investigate the feasibility and acceptability of outreach programming involving the use of play guides over time. Pre-, mid-, and post-intervention measures will estimate program impact on child STEM and social-emotional skill acquisition, relative to a comparison group. An expected outcome of the project will be research-based educational materials that illustrate and support pretend play in ways that generate spatial and mathematical thinking and parent/child conversations. These materials will will be made available to families and informal learning practitioners. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.