Wenz-Gross Melodie, Yoo Yeonsoo, Upshur Carole C, Gambino Anthony J
Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, United States.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, United States.
Front Psychol. 2018 Oct 4;9:1886. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01886. eCollection 2018.
Efforts to improve the achievement gap between low-income children and their more affluent peers has led to the development of classroom interventions and curricula to increase executive functioning (EF) and social-emotional skills (SE), thought to be foundational for learning. The Second Step Early Learning (SSEL) curriculum is a commercially available curriculum designed to improve school readiness by building EF and SE skills. However, although widely used, it has not been widely studied. Modeling SSEL's underlying theory of change, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to longitudinally examine the effects of the curriculum on low-income preschool children's kindergarten school readiness through the hypothesized mediating role of EF and SE skills in improving pre-academic skills and task behavior in preschool. In a cluster randomized trial, 972 children attending 63 preschool classrooms within 13 low-income Head Start or community preschools were individually tested at the beginning (T1) and end of preschool (T2, = 836) and followed into kindergarten. Children's average age at T1 was 53 months, with 51% male, 42% Anglo-American, 26% African-American, and 40% Hispanic-American. Children's EF, social skills, pre-literacy/language, and pre-math skills were assessed by trained child assessors blind to study conditions at T1 and T2. Assessors also rated children's task behavior in the testing situation at T1 and T2. School records of children's kindergarten screening scores were obtained on 345 children at T3. It was expected that SSEL would have both direct and indirect effects on kindergarten readiness through improvements in children's SE and EF skills preschool academic skills and on-task behavior. We found no direct effects of SSEL on either pre-academic or on-task behavior outcomes in preschool, nor on later kindergarten readiness. However, SSEL significantly increased EF, and as expected by SSEL's theory of change, growth in EF predicted gains in both pre-academics (particularly pre-math), and on-task behavior in preschool. End-of-year pre-academic skills and on task behavior in turn predicted better kindergarten readiness. Further, SE (although not impacted by SSEL) had direct and indirect effects on kindergarten readiness. Thus, overall, our findings largely support SSEL's theory of change, particularly in relation to EF.
为缩小低收入家庭儿童与其富裕同龄人之间的成绩差距，人们开展了多项努力，进而开发了课堂干预措施和课程，以提高执行功能（EF）和社会情感技能（SE），这些技能被认为是学习的基础。“第二步早期学习”（SSEL）课程是一种商业可用课程，旨在通过培养EF和SE技能来提高入学准备程度。然而，尽管该课程被广泛使用，但尚未得到广泛研究。本研究以SSEL的潜在变革理论为模型，运用结构方程模型（SEM），通过假设EF和SE技能在提高学前儿童学业技能和任务行为方面的中介作用，纵向考察该课程对低收入家庭学前儿童幼儿园入学准备程度的影响。在一项整群随机试验中，对13所低收入开端计划或社区幼儿园的63个学前班级中的972名儿童在学前开始时（T1）和结束时（T2，n = 836）进行了个体测试，并跟踪至幼儿园阶段。T1时儿童的平均年龄为53个月，其中51%为男性，42%为英裔美国人，26%为非裔美国人，40%为西班牙裔美国人。在T1和T2时，由对研究条件不知情的经过培训的儿童评估人员对儿童的EF、社交技能、读写/语言和数学前技能进行评估。评估人员还对T1和T2时测试情境中儿童的任务行为进行评分。在T3时获取了345名儿童幼儿园筛查分数的学校记录。研究预期SSEL将通过改善儿童的SE和EF技能、学前学业技能和任务行为，对幼儿园入学准备产生直接和间接影响。我们发现，SSEL对学前儿童的学业前或任务行为结果以及后期幼儿园入学准备均无直接影响。然而，SSEL显著提高了EF，正如SSEL的变革理论所预期的那样，EF的增长预示着学业前（尤其是数学前）以及学前任务行为的进步。年末的学业前技能和任务行为反过来又预示着更好的幼儿园入学准备程度。此外，SE（尽管未受SSEL影响）对幼儿园入学准备有直接和间接影响。因此，总体而言，我们的研究结果在很大程度上支持了SSEL的变革理论，尤其是与EF相关的部分。
