Key staff:
Laurie Miller Brotman, Ph.D., Principal Investigator
Esther Calzada, Ph.D., and Spring Dawson-McClure, Ph.D., Co-Investigators
Project Director: Spring Dawson-McClure, Ph.D.
Funding Source: US Department of Education

Purpose: Children from poor, urban communities are at increased risk of behavior problems and academic underachievement. The purpose of this project is to test a universal, preventive school- and family-based mental health program for pre-kindergarten children. The program aims to prevent conduct problems and improve social emotional functioning and academic achievement among children by promoting effective parenting and teaching strategies and parent-school involvement. An initial evaluation of the program followed children and parents from eight public elementary schools through the end of kindergarten to assess program effects. The current evaluation of the program will follow children and parents in ten public elementary schools through the end of second grade.

Setting: The evaluation is being conducted in 10 public elementary schools with pre-kindergarten programs in poor, high-crime neighborhoods in New York City.

Population: The participants are pre-kindergarten children from poor, urban neighborhoods, their families, and the school staff who are delivering the intervention.

Intervention: ParentCorps is a universal preventive intervention developed in partnership with community members and early childhood educators. The intervention combines 1) services for parents and children provided after school by pre-kindergarten teachers, paraprofessionals, and mental health professionals with 2) training and consultation for pre-kindergarten school staff. The program aims to prevent behavior problems and academic underachievement in kindergarten through the promotion of effective parenting and teaching practices, parent-school involvement, and social, emotional, and behavioral competence during the preschool period. In each intervention school, a six-member team of pre-kindergarten teachers, paraprofessionals, school-based mental health professionals will receive training by NYU clinicians. Training includes five days (30 hours) in the fall of the school year. This team, in collaboration with NYU clinicians, will deliver the after-school program to families in the winter and spring of the school year (13 two-hour sessions). In addition, pre-kindergarten teachers receive ongoing consultation on classroom management and parent involvement.

Research Design and Methods: The study is a randomized controlled trial conducted in five treatment schools and five control schools. A new cohort of pre-kindergarten students and their families are enrolled each academic year for a total of four years. The 15 schools in the treatment group are providing the ParentCorps intervention to children, families, and school staff. All of the children in the pre-kindergarten classes in the treatment and control schools are being recruited for the study, with an expected sample size of 1,000 children.

Control Condition: The five control schools are providing their usual pre-kindergarten program.

Key Measures: Child behavior and achievement will be assessed by parent and teacher reports, child interviews, and observations of classroom behavior. Children will be assessed pre- and post-intervention, and during the fall and spring of their kindergarten year and in the spring of first and second grade.

Parenting practices and parent-school involvement will be measured by parent reports and teacher reports (of parent-school involvement only). Teacher practices will be measured by teacher report and observations.

Data Analytic Strategy: The analysis will use HLM and other appropriate multi-level models to estimate growth curves for student outcomes including behavior problems and academic outcomes. In addition, the study will examine if the effects are mediated or moderated by teaching practices, parent-school involvement, intervention dose, integrity of implementation, parent satisfaction, or child characteristics such as gender, early conduct problems, and school readiness skills. Secondary analyses will be conducted on the long-term impact of the program on teaching practices, parenting practices, and parent-school involvement.