Mediating Mechanisms of the Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management Program.

Håvard Horndalen Tveit,May Britt Drugli,Bjørn Helge Handegård,Sturla Fossum,Frode Stenseng,Christian A Klöckner

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.555442

Abstract

This study examined whether, and the extent to which, the Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management program predicted positive development of children’s emotional, behavioral, and social adjustment through changes in the child–teacher relationship. Using data from a longitudinal quasi-experimental intervention trial with a matched control condition, including 1,085 children (49.7% girls, meanage = 4.22 years; SDage = 0.88 years), the potential associations were tested by means of multilevel path modeling. The mediation model demonstrated that (1) children in the intervention condition achieved more favorable changes in the child–teacher relationship than the control condition; (2) changes in the child–teacher relationship were associated with changes in the target outcomes; and (3) the intervention effects were mediated via changes in the child–teacher relationship.

Highlights

Research has documented that emotional, behavioral, and social development is intrinsically linked to early childhood attachment patterns with caregivers (Sabol and Pianta, 2012; Cantor et al, 2019)
The present study aims at providing some preliminary findings regarding the proposed mediating mechanisms of the Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management (IY TCM) program, namely, that promoting teachers’ caregiver competence will nurture more affectionate and less conflictual child–teacher relationships, which, in effect, will stimulate the children’s emotional, behavioral, and social adjustment
A series of linear mixed models revealed that no demographical measures predicted any of the mediators or outcomes, neither did any of the baseline measures differ between the conditions; no demographical covariates were included in the mediation analysis

Summary

Introduction

Research has documented that emotional, behavioral, and social development is intrinsically linked to early childhood attachment patterns with caregivers (Sabol and Pianta, 2012; Cantor et al, 2019). Many early-years interventions, including Early Risers (August et al, 2001), Tools of the Mind (Bodrova and Deborah, 2007), and Preschool Paths/Paths programs (Domitrovich et al, 1999), are based on the assertion that childcare and school teachers are catalyst of change in children’s lives. The premise of such interventions is that promoting teacher caregiver competence will nurture more affectionate and intimate child–teacher relationships with less conflictual interactions, thereby creating an environment that stimulates the children’s emotional, behavioral, and social development. Despite being extensively examined with various target populations and in multiple

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