Nurturing child social-emotional development: evaluation of a pre-post and 2-month follow-up uncontrolled pilot training for caregivers and educators

Pilot and Feasibility Studies

Research

Ruth Speidel¹  Tina Malti²  Tyler Colasante²  Redab Al-Janaideh³  Tracy K. Y. Wong³ 

[1] Centre for Child Development, Mental Health, and Policy, University of Toronto, 3359 Mississauga Rd, L5L 1C6, Mississauga, ON, Canada;Centre for Child Development, Mental Health, and Policy, University of Toronto, 3359 Mississauga Rd, L5L 1C6, Mississauga, ON, Canada;Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Canada;Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Canada;

关键词: Social-emotional development;    Mental health;    Caregiver training;    Educator training;    Children;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s40814-023-01357-4

 received in 2022-05-30, accepted in 2023-07-05,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundSocial-emotional capacities contribute to children’s mental health by helping them navigate their own and others’ emotional states and forge healthy relationships. Caregivers and educators are critical socialization agents in early and middle childhood, but gaps remain in the systematic integration of social-emotional research into caregiver and educator trainings. The aim of this pilot study was to test the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a social-emotional training designed to promote caregivers’ and educators’ capacities to support social-emotional development in children ages 3–8 years.MethodsFifty adults (n = 24 caregivers of children ages 3–8 years, n = 26 educators working with children ages 3–8 years) participated in a virtual training over 3 weeks. Participants completed pre-training, post-training, and 2-month follow-up questionnaires evaluating their knowledge of social-emotional concepts, use of training strategies, mental health, and satisfaction with the training. Caregivers also reported children’s social-emotional capacities and mental health.ResultsOn average, caregivers and educators completed 83% of the virtual training sessions and reported high satisfaction with the training. Further, preliminary evidence indicated that caregivers’ and educators’ knowledge of social-emotional concepts increased pre- to post-training and was maintained at the 2-month follow-up. Increases in caregivers’ and educators’ knowledge and greater use of training strategies were associated with improvements in children’s social-emotional capacities and caregivers’ and educators’ own mental health.ConclusionsThese pilot results support the feasibility of infusing evidence-based social-emotional content into caregiver and educator training initiatives aimed at nurturing child social-emotional development and mental health. The results inform future evaluation of the short- and long-term benefits of this training with a full-scale randomized controlled trial design.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2023

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