Evaluation of the "Learning to Live at Home" program. Pilot study for parents of Early Childhood Education

Abstract

Introduction. In recent decades, several studies provide scientific evidence on the benefits of preventive family intervention in early childhood. However, in the Spanish context there is a shortage of interventions aimed at this population that have shown their effectiveness. In carrying out a pilot intervention for the universal family program Aprender a Convivir en Casa (ACC) with a Spanish population, the objective of this study was to ascertain its effectiveness in developing social competence and in reducing behavioral problems in preschoolers. Method. The sample involved 18 parents, all with children in early childhood education aged from 3 to 5 years old (Mage = 4.48 years, SDage = 0.50) from a school in Granada (Spain). 9 were placed in the experimental group and 9 in the control group. Participants were allocated to groups by accidental and non-probability sampling. The children in the experimental group were assigned to this group if their parents had attended more than 80% of the program sessions. Results. The results indicate both a main effect of the time variable (pre-test and post-test) and interaction effects between time x group variables (control and experimental) in the variables of social cooperation, social interaction and for social competence as a whole, with the experimental group obtaining higher scores in the post-test phase. With regard to behavior problems, the results show main and interaction effects in attention problems and in externalizing behavior problems. In the other variables analyzed, no significant main or interaction effects were found. Discussion and Conclusions. Intervention with families is an important protective factor in the prevention of behavioral problems. The results observed after the pilot implementation of the ACC program are promising, in that they show the promotion of social competence and the reduction of some behavioral problems in children from the participating families. However, there are some limitations in the study that need to be taken into consideration.