Improving Family Well-Being and Child School Readiness: Power PATH Dual Generation Intervention

NCT ID: NCT02176590

Last Updated: 2015-12-02

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: UNKNOWN
• Clinical Phase: PHASE2
• Total Enrollment: 540 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2014-08-31
• Study Completion Date: 2018-09-30

Brief Summary

This project will test the proximal and distal effects of an integrated dual-generation intervention, Power PATH, in Head Start preschoolers and their parents in Alabama.

Detailed Description

This project will test the proximal and distal effects of an integrated dual-generation intervention approach, Power PATH, in an existing Head Start University Partnership in Alabama. Dual generation approaches recognize the need to intervene with both parents and children in Head Start preschools, in order to improve parents' ability to provide safe and supportive caregiving environments and to prepare children for the transition to elementary school academically and behaviorally. Parents of Head Start preschoolers often have high levels of poverty, stress, and mental health needs (Yoshikowa, Aber, & Beardslee, 2012) and their children are at-risk for academic, behavioral, and social-emotional difficulties (Aber, Jones, & Cohen, 2000; Costello, Keeler, & Angold, 2001; Morales & Guerra, 2006). Thus, in this project, two evidence-based and widely-utilized preventive interventions will be adapted and thoughtfully integrated, in collabo-ration with Head Start personnel, to provide intensive, high quality services to Head Start parents and children. First, the Power PATH Parent Intervention program, adapted from Coping Power (Wells, Lochman & Lenhart, 2008) for this dual-generation approach, will be implemented to address parental mental health needs, to increase parental employment and financial security, and to improve parents' ability to model effective social-emotional skills. The parent intervention will help parents create a positive and predictable home environment, and support their child's academic learning and emotional and behavioral self-regulation. Second, the Promoting Alterna-tive Thinking Strategies (PATHS) Preschool Social and Emotional Learning curriculum (Domitrovich et al., 1999) will be implemented in the preschool classrooms. PATHS is a universal, classroom-based curriculum that increases children's social-emotional competence and self-regulatory skills, leading to long-term social, behavioral and academic gains. The Power PATH program will incorporate both of these parent and child interventions, and will include opportuni-ties for the children to teach their parents the social and emotional skills they are learning in the classroom, to promote skill- generalization and transfer to the home environment. This study will also identify novel intervention mediators and moderators, essential for interrupting the intergen-erational transmission of chronic social stress, and will identify the best interventions for families, particularly during preschool when self-regulation skills are still malleable, and children's primary environments and physiological responses to stress are likely to moderate intervention effects (Bierman et al., 2008; Boyce & Ellis, 2005; Porges, 2007). In summary, addressing sources of chronic stress in the parents of Head Start preschoolers (i.e., employment and financial insecurity, mental health needs, and family stressors) through the Power PATH dual generation intervention is expected to prepare parents to better support, shape and model their children's self-regulation skills and to better foster their children's school readiness, and to improve overall family well-being.

Conditions

Power PATH; Head Start as Usual

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: PREVENTION
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Power PATH

Classroom PATHS Social Emotional Learning Curriculum (for preschool classrooms) plus Coping Power parent intervention (teaches parents what children are learning in the classroom PATHS program and also provides parents with mental health intervention and parenting topics to promote family well-being)

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Power PATH

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

PATHS: Teacher-led classroom curriculum promoting a positive classroom environment and teaching social-emotional skills

Head Start as usual

Head Start as usual (will measure the effects of Head Start programming as usual on the primary outcomes)

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Head Start as usual

Intervention Type: OTHER

Standard Head Start programming (including classroom instruction, meals, and family services)

Interventions

Power PATH

PATHS: Teacher-led classroom curriculum promoting a positive classroom environment and teaching social-emotional skills

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Head Start as usual

Standard Head Start programming (including classroom instruction, meals, and family services)

Intervention Type: OTHER

Other Intervention Names

Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) Preschool/Kindergarten Social Emotional Learning Classroom Curriculum; Coping Power parent program

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• 4 year old preschool students in participating Head Start centers/classrooms in West Central Alabama, and their parents and teachers

Exclusion Criteria

• Severe developmental delay (making the student unable to complete the primary study measures)

• Minimum Eligible Age: 3 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 8 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Ansley Gilpin, Ph.D.

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Locations

University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States

Countries

United States

Other Identifiers

90YR0075

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id