Effects of Developmentally Appropriate Practices on Social Skills and Problem Behaviors in 1st Through 3rd Grades

Abstract

The guidelines published by the National Association for the Education of Young Children on the use of developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) have, over the last two decades, had an important influence on young children's educational experiences. The efficacy of these guidelines for changing children's outcomes has been examined by only a handful of studies and with mixed results. This study looks at the effects of classroom and school-level use of classroom elements of DAP in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades on parent ratings of children's social skills at the end of the year, controlling for ratings of the same construct at the end of the previous year, gender, and ethnicity with a sample of between 1,145 and 2,111 students each year. Differential effects of DAP for males and females and for children of different ethnic backgrounds also were examined. Despite high power, no consistent effects of DAP were observed and no interactions found, suggesting that DAP does not affect parents' ratings of social skills in 1st through 3rd grades. The importance of these results, in light of other work on the effects of DAP, is discussed.