Promoting Social-Emotional Development In Children Experiencing Economic Hardship Using TBRI® Nurture Group©

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of occupational therapy group intervention using Trust Based Relational Intervention® (TBRI®) Nurture Groups© on preschool children’s social, emotional, and behavioral development in a Head Start program. This study used a retrospective mixed method, quasi-experimental design with non-equivalent groups and pretest-posttest measures. The intervention site teaching staff participated in 16 hours of TBRI® Caregiver training and the children participated in 12 weeks of Nurture Group© interventions. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and Teaching Strategies GOLD® (TSG) assessment measured child development in social, emotional, and behavioral domains. The intervention site teaching staff participated in a focus group to determine their perceptions of the intervention’s effectiveness. This data was evaluated using grounded theory methodology. SDQ: The children experienced statistically significant changes in the emotional symptoms and prosocial behavior domains. TSG: Results indicated a statistically significant main effect of site on objectives of Forms Relationships with Adults, Responds to Emotional Cues, and Balances Needs & Rights of Self and Others. Themes identified from qualitative analysis illustrated how the teachers highly valued the TBRI® training and adapted their teaching strategies to incorporate the TBRI® principles of empowering, connecting, and correcting. Teaching staff reported increased perceived social-emotional skills in the children and detailed how the children’s behavior changed to demonstrate these skills. Occupational therapy group intervention supports the social-emotional development of children attending Head Start. Occupational therapy practitioners need to engage in universal and targeted approaches to promote resiliency in this population of at-risk children.

KEYWORDS:

• Resiliency
• trauma-informed
• head Start
• social-emotional development

Acknowledgments

We are particularly grateful for the assistance given by South Central Child Development Inc. and the Head Start teaching staff. Also, for the contributions of Brooke Ireland, BS, SPT.