Supporting social-emotional development in early childhood education and care – a randomized parallel group trial evaluating the impact of two different interventions

Figures & data

Table 1. Change over time in children’s social-emotional wellbeing during the SAGA and Pikkuli interventions and the control condition.

Variable	MD^a	95% CI		p-value	f^2^b
SAGA
Internalizing	1.15	0.49,	1.81	<0.001	0.182
Externalizing	1.29	0.61,	1.96	<0.001	0.226
Prosocial behavior	−1.25	−1.73,	−0.77	<0.001	0.448
Social orientation	−1.37	−2.19,	−0.54	0.002	0.164
Pikkuli
Internalizing	0.74	0.31,	1.17	0.001	0.179
Externalizing	−0.17	−0.80,	0.48	0.608	0.011
Prosocial behavior	−0.45	−0.89,	−0.02	0.040	0.060
Social orientation	−0.46	−1.13,	0.22	0.181	0.016
Control group
Internalizing	0.10	−0.42,	0.61	0.713	0.019
Externalizing	−0.17	−0.63,	0.30	0.475	0.011
Prosocial behavior	−0.10	−0.73,	0.54	0.763	0.018
Social orientation	0.00	−0.77,	0.77	>0.999	0.022

Note. MD = mean difference; CI = confidence interval.

^a Estimated MDs before and after the intervention. Positive MDs indicate higher values at the start of the intervention. Analyses are adjusted for child’s age, gender, and parental education (highest of either parent).

^b Cohen’s f²≥ 0.02, f²≥ 0.15, and f²≥ 0.35 indicate small, medium, and large effect sizes, respectively (Cohen, 1988, p. 413—414).

Table

Variable	Control group		Pikkuli group		SAGA group		p-value
	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD
N	42		56		52
Girls (n, %)	22	52.4	30	53.6	25	48.1	0.839
Age (years)	5.7	0.9	5.4^b	0.9	5.9^b	0.8	0.012
Daycare start age (months)	28.1	13.9	27.3	13.7	29.1	18.9	0.807^d
Spoke sentences at age (months)	22.7	5.2	24.1	7.3	24.4	6.9	0.301
Strongest language other than Finnish (n, %)	3	7.1	5	8.9	3	5.8	0.819
More than one language spoken at home (n, %)	8	19.0	8	14.3	12	23.1	0.502
Parental education (highest of either parent) (n, %)
Up to high school diploma or equivalent	13	31.0	14	25.5	20	38.5	0.015
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent	7	16.7^c	20	36.4	21	40.4
At least Master’s degree or equivalent	22	52.4^c	21	38.2	11	21.2^c
Reading with child at home (n, %)
Less than once a week	5	11.9	9	16.7	8	15.4	0.566
Once a week	3	7.1	10	18.5	11	21.2
Almost daily	13	31.0	12	22.2	12	23.1
Daily	21	50.0	23	42.6	21	40.4
Intervention and control sessions
Number of participated sessions per child	19.6	5.3	18.2^b	7.4	27.1^a^,^b	4.4	<0.001^d
Mean duration of sessions per group (min)	17.5	7.0	21.8^a^, ^Table Footnoteb	12.5	18.7^b	5.6	<0.001^d
SDQ before the intervention
Internalizing (scale 0-20)	2.9	3.1	3.2	2.9	4.2	3.4	0.093
Externalizing (scale 0-20)	4.9	4.9	4.1	3.6	5.6	4.5	0.196
Prosocial behavior (scale 0-10)	6.6	2.5	6.8^b	2.3	5.2^a^, ^Table Footnoteb	2.5	0.002
EEF before the intervention
Social orientation (scale 5-25)	19.3	4.6	19.0	4.1	17.2	4.2	0.038
Self-regulation (scale 7-35)	25.5	7.0	24.8	5.9	24.0	6.6	0.569
Word fluency before the intervention
Sum of food and animal words	19.2	7.8	15.0^a	5.7	15.9	6.3	0.006

Note. SDQ = Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire; EEF = Educator’s Evaluation Form. In case of significant group differences, results from the subanalyses are marked as follows:

^a Significantly different value from control group (p < 0.05).

^b Significantly different values between intervention groups (p < 0.05).

^c Significantly different value from the expected count (p < 0.05).

^d Welch-test was used when homogeneity of variance assumption was not fulfilled.

Table

Variable	Control group				Pikkuli group				SAGA group
	M	SD	95% CI		M	SD	95% CI		M	SD	95% CI
Pre-intervention values
SDQ at time 1
Internalizing	2.9	3.1	1.9,	3.9	3.2	2.9	2.4,	4.0	4.2	3.4	3.3,	5.2
Externalizing	4.9	4.9	3.3,	6.4	4.1	3.6	3.2,	5.1	5.6	4.5	4.4,	6.9
Prosocial behavior	6.6	2.5	5.8,	7.4	6.8	2.3	6.2,	7.4	5.2	2.5	4.5,	5.9
EEF at time 1
Social orientation	19.3	4.6	17.9,	20.7	19.0	4.1	17.8,	20.1	17.2	4.2	16.0,	18.4
Self regulation	25.5	7.0	23.3,	27.6	24.8	5.9	23.2,	26.4	24.0	6.6	22.2,	25.9
Word fluency at time 1
Sum of food and animal words	19.2	7.8	16.7,	21.7	15.0	5.7	13.4,	16.5	15.9	6.3	14.1,	17.7
Post-intervention values
SDQ at time 2
Internalizing	2.8	3.5	1.7,	3.9	2.4	2.8	1.7,	3.2	3.1	2.9	2.3,	3.9
Externalizing	5.0	5.0	3.5,	6.6	4.2	3.5	3.2,	5.1	4.3	4.1	3.2,	5.5
Prosocial behavior	6.7	2.5	5.9,	7.5	7.3	2.2	6.7,	7.8	6.5	2.4	5.8,	7.1
EEF at time 2
Social orientation	19.3	4.4	17.9,	20.7	19.4	4.1	18.3,	20.4	18.6	4.2	17.4,	19.8
Self regulation	26.0	7.3	23.8,	28.3	26.1	5.2	24.7,	27.5	26.1	6.6	24.3,	27.9
Word fluency at time 2
Sum of food and animal words	22.1	7.5	19.7,	24.5	17.0	5.5	15.5,	18.5	18.3	6.5	16.4,	20.1

Note. SDQ = Strenghts and Difficulties Questionnaire, EEF = Educator’s Evaluation Form, CI = confidence interval.

Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

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