Oorloff Selina, Rooney Rosanna, Baughman Natalie, Kane Robert, McDevitt Maryanne, Bryant Aidan
School of Population Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia.
Front Psychol. 2021 Aug 11;12:570518. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.570518. eCollection 2021.
Research indicates that mental health disorders can occur in children as young as 4 years of age, prompting the need for prevention programs for young children. The ability to use healthy strategies to cope with emotions is a protective factor against mental health disorders that can be effectively taught to children from an early age. The current study used a pre-test post-test cluster randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of the new Aussie Optimism: I Spy Feelings Program. The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of the program on children's emotional coping. The program included content on emotion regulation strategies, focusing on the emotions of happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and worry. The participants were 73 children (intervention = 33; control = 40) from pre-primary classes. Four schools were cluster randomized to the intervention or control group, resulting in two schools in each condition. Parents completed measures of their children's emotional coping with sadness, anger and worry. Children in the intervention group participated in ten sessions of the I Spy Feelings Program, spread over 5 weeks. The results indicated a significant, small to moderate intervention effect for coping with anger. Children in the control group decreased in their ability to cope with anger, while children in the intervention group remained stable. No intervention effects were found for coping with sadness or worry, with results for these emotions staying stable across time for both groups. This pilot study will inform the further development of the program. The effects of the program on coping with anger provide support for the use of emotion regulation strategies in intervention programs to maintain healthy emotional coping, which is a protective factor against internalizing and externalizing disorders in childhood.
研究表明，心理健康障碍可能出现在年仅4岁的儿童身上，这促使有必要为幼儿制定预防计划。运用健康策略应对情绪的能力是预防心理健康障碍的一个保护因素，这一点可以从小就有效地教给孩子。本研究采用了前测后测整群随机对照试验，以测试新的《澳大利亚式乐观：我发现感受》计划的效果。该研究的目的是调查该计划对儿童情绪应对的影响。该计划包括情绪调节策略的内容，重点关注快乐、悲伤、愤怒、恐惧和担忧等情绪。参与者是来自学前班的73名儿童（干预组 = 33名；对照组 = 40名）。四所学校被整群随机分为干预组或对照组，每种情况各有两所学校。家长们完成了对孩子应对悲伤、愤怒和担忧情绪的测量。干预组的儿童参加了为期5周、共十节的“我发现感受”计划课程。结果表明，在应对愤怒方面有显著的、小到中等程度的干预效果。对照组儿童应对愤怒的能力下降，而干预组儿童保持稳定。在应对悲伤或担忧方面未发现干预效果，两组在这些情绪方面的结果随时间保持稳定。这项初步研究将为该计划的进一步发展提供参考。该计划在应对愤怒方面的效果为在干预计划中使用情绪调节策略以维持健康的情绪应对提供了支持，而健康的情绪应对是预防儿童内化和外化障碍的一个保护因素。
