Chhangur Rabia R, Smalle Eleonore H M, Dejonckheere Egon, van der Zwaag Gerdien
Department of Developmental Psychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
Tilburg Experience Sampling Center, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
PLoS One. 2025 Sep 8;20(9):e0330597. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0330597. eCollection 2025.
Children with conduct problems vary considerably in how they respond to behavioral interventions. Although group-based, child-focused programs are increasingly implemented, research still relies on retrospective parent or teacher reports and group-level outcomes. These traditional approaches often obscure individual differences in treatment response and reduce the potential for individualized behavioral support tailored to each child's unique profile. The Dino Study-Daily Intervention-based research on Nurturing Opportunities-introduces the Incredible Years Dinosaur Program in the Netherlands for children aged 4-8 with conduct problems. This evidence-based program, grounded in cognitive-behavioral principles, aims to strengthen children's emotional regulation, social skills, and problem-solving through structured, play-based group sessions. However, little is known about mechanisms of change in children's daily life, particularly how emotional and behavioral improvements unfold within and across individual children during intervention. This study evaluates the program's effectiveness in reducing externalizing behavior and promoting cognitive and prosocial functioning, and explores daily variability in children's emotional and behavioral responses using a daily diary design.
This protocol outlines a randomized controlled trial with a waitlist control condition. A total of 120 children will be randomly assigned (1:1) to the intervention or waitlist group. Participants will be recruited via professional institutions and primary schools in both preventive and clinical contexts. In addition to pre- and post-assessments, Intensive Longitudinal Data (ILD) will be collected to capture daily fluctuations in mood, behavior, and family interactions before, during, and after the intervention. This design enables analysis of group-level effects as well as intra-individual change patterns.
Findings will offer novel insights into how children respond individually to structured interventions in real-life settings and inform more personalized, ecologically valid approaches to early behavioral support.
ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT07051642).
有品行问题的儿童对行为干预的反应差异很大。尽管越来越多地实施以儿童为中心的小组项目，但研究仍依赖于家长或教师的回顾性报告以及小组层面的结果。这些传统方法往往掩盖了治疗反应中的个体差异，并降低了根据每个孩子的独特情况提供个性化行为支持的可能性。恐龙研究——基于日常干预的养育机会研究——在荷兰为4至8岁有品行问题的儿童引入了“不可思议的岁月恐龙项目”。这个基于证据的项目以认知行为原则为基础，旨在通过结构化的、以游戏为基础的小组课程来增强儿童的情绪调节能力、社交技能和解决问题的能力。然而，对于儿童日常生活中的改变机制，尤其是在干预期间个体内部和个体之间情绪和行为改善是如何展开的，我们知之甚少。本研究评估该项目在减少外化行为以及促进认知和亲社会功能方面的有效性，并使用每日日记设计探索儿童情绪和行为反应的日常变异性。
本方案概述了一项带有等待名单对照条件的随机对照试验。总共120名儿童将被随机分配（1:1）到干预组或等待名单组。参与者将通过专业机构和小学在预防和临床环境中招募。除了进行前后评估外，还将收集密集纵向数据（ILD），以捕捉干预前、干预期间和干预后情绪、行为和家庭互动的每日波动情况。这种设计能够分析小组层面的效果以及个体内部的变化模式。
研究结果将为儿童在现实生活环境中如何个体性地应对结构化干预提供新的见解，并为早期行为支持提供更个性化、生态有效的方法提供依据。
ClinicalTrials.gov（NCT07051642）。
