Abstract
Emotion coaching is a parenting style clinically observed in the USA which supports children’s emotional self-regulation, social skills, physical health and academic success. A pilot study in a rural disadvantaged area in England sought to evaluate the effectiveness of training practitioners who work with children and young people in schools, early years settings and youth centres to apply emotion coaching strategies in professional contexts, particularly during emotionally intensive and behavioural incidents. The study rested on the premise that supportive adults can individually and collectively empower children and young people to build a repertoire of internal and external socio-emotional regulatory skills that promote prosocial behavior. A mixed method approach was adopted (n=127). The findings suggest the efficacy of adopting emotion coaching strategies to support behavioural management approaches and policies within settings across the age range. Data from school contexts are largely recorded here. The research is the first pilot in the UK that builds on and complements similar work being undertaken in the USA and Australia.
Highlights
Children and young people’s behaviour, in school, continues to be a cause for concern in all sectors of society from government to media to the community (Shaughnessy, 2012). Hutchings et al (2013) have identified that behavioural problems in the classroom are growing and a DfE research report (2011a) details the increasing prevalence of children and young people1 who exhibit behavioural difficulties within England
Results from version 1 (V1) and V2 suggest an increase in emotion coaching meta-emotion philosophy and a reduction in emotion dismissing meta-emotion philosophy
A Chi square goodness of fit test was applied to the items relating to professional practice on the Exit Questionnaire
Summary
Children and young people’s behaviour, in school, continues to be a cause for concern in all sectors of society from government to media to the community (Shaughnessy, 2012). Hutchings et al (2013) have identified that behavioural problems in the classroom are growing and a DfE research report (2011a) details the increasing prevalence of children and young people who exhibit behavioural difficulties within England. Part of the 2011 Education Act (DfE, 2011b) strengthened aspects of previous legislation in respect of teachers’ statutory authority to discipline pupils for misbehaviour This has been re-enforced by the guidance document: Ensuring Good Behaviour in Schools (DfE 2012a) which redefines what constitutes ‘reasonable force’ that staff may use on pupils. The Standards call for teachers to ‘maintain good relationships with pupils’ the emphasis is for teachers to ‘exercise appropriate authority, and act decisively when necessary’ (DfE, 2012b: 7) This appears to signal a return to behaviourist rather than relational approaches to managing behaviour largely based on the work of Behaviourists such as Skinner (1968). Behaviourism is based on the premise that behaviour can be controlled and modified via the reinforcement techniques of reward and sanction
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