The Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management Program: Outcomes from a Group Randomized Trial.

Abstract

This group randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluated the efficacy of the Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management Program (IY TCM) on student social behavioral and academic outcomes among a large diverse sample of students within an urban context. Participants included 105 teachers and 1817 students in kindergarten to third grade. Three-level hierarchical linear models (HLM) were conducted to examine the overall treatment effects on teacher-reported student behavior and academic outcomes. In addition, multi-level moderation analyses were conducted to examine whether the treatment effects on student outcomes differed by demographic variables and pretest measures of social emotional and disruptive behavior and academics. Findings indicate that IY TCM reduced student emotional dysregulation (d = - 0.14) and increased prosocial behavior (d = 0.13) and social competence (d = 0.13). In addition, students initially lower on measures of social and academic competence demonstrated significant improvements on the same measure at outcome in comparison to similar peers in control classrooms. Practical significance of the findings and implications for schools and policy makers are discussed.