Evaluation of a school-based preventive intervention for at-risk urban children

This research describes the development and evaluation of a trial preventive intervention designed to provide highly stressed urban school children with skills and competencies that promote resilient outcomes. The intervention consisted of 20 sessions and focused on identification and expression of feelings, empathy and perspective-taking, social problem-solving skills, differentiation of solvable from unsolvable problems, and enhancing self-efficacy and self-esteem.
The study included 95 4th and 5th grade subjects. To be eligible for the intervention, children had to: (a) have experienced at least four stressful life events and circumstances (SLE-Cs); (b) be rated in the lower or middle third of adjustment by teachers; and (c) be below the 80th percentile on the parent rating of adjustment Identified children were matched on stress, adjustment, and demographics and randomly assigned to intervention (E) or control (C) groups. There were no significant group differences at pre on gender, teacher ratings, parent ratings, or total number of SLE-Cs. However, there were more 5th graders in E group and a significant group by gender interaction for the total number of SLE-Cs experienced prior to intervention.
Dependent measures included: (a) child self-ratings of adjustment (i.e., overall adjustment, anxiety, hopelessness, and self-efficacy); (b) adjustment ratings by teachers and parents; and (c) measures of skill acquisition (i.e., child self-reports of empathy, social problem-solving, and realistic control).
The study’s principal hypothesis was not confirmed, i.e., Es failed to improved more than Cs on self-rated measures of adjustment, skill acquisition, or adjustment ratings by external raters. There was a significant group by gender interaction for change on the teacher behavior rating measure. Following the intervention, teachers rated E boys as showing enhanced adjustment while E girls were rated as manifesting more behavior problems.
These findings fail to support the hypothesis that a school-based, skill-training program for highly stressed urban children would enhance resilient adaptation. Possible explanations for these results are offered. This discussion is approached within the larger framework of possible internal and external threats to the intervention.