Campus Location

Abilene Campus (Residential)

Date of Award

5-2020

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Psychology

Degree Name

Master of Science

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Rachel Team

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Richard Beck

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Scott Perkins

Abstract

Research suggests that early childhood is a sensitive developmental period for social and emotional development, and early intervention leading to social-emotional skills in preschool years is significantly associated with positive outcomes later in life. Many preschool children are reported to already experience social-emotional problems, but very few teachers have received training to implement social-emotional development programs. Educational institutions must carry the responsibility of promoting children’s social and emotional development because most young children spend the majority of their time learning and socializing in school. This study sought to add to current literature by looking into the effects of student grade level as well as teacher training and experience on the efficacy of the implementation of social-emotional skills training. Results suggested that students (N = 241) demonstrated a trend of decreasing negative behaviors and increasing positive behaviors after the social-emotional skills training interventions. Pre-kindergarten students showed a greater decrease in negative behaviors than kindergarten children after intervention. Students in classrooms with experienced teachers presented less negative behaviors when compared to students in classrooms of teachers with no experience. These preliminary results supported the general effectiveness of the adapted intervention, but also suggested the need for additional intervention to produce meaningful and sustained behavioral gains for higher-need students.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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