Poster #164 - A Brief Mindfulness-based Intervention for Pre-kindergarten Children: Executive Functioning and Social-Emotional Outcomes

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Prevention and Interventions

Integrative Statement

Young children living in poverty show deficits in language, mathematics, and self-regulation (Hoff, 2013; Jacobson Chernoff, Flanagan, McPhee, & Park, 2007), and these deficits are associated with later problems in academic achievement (Duncan et al. 2007). Research has shown that executive functioning (EF) is related to early academic and social-emotional outcomes (de Wilde, Koot, & van Lier, 2016; Fuhs, Nesbitt, Farran, & Dong, 2014; Willoughby et al.; 2012), however, few interventions have targeted EF skills (Diamond & Lee, 2011) as a means of improving children’s outcomes. Mindfulness-based interventions have demonstrated positive effects on young children’s self-regulation and EF (Flook, Goldberg, Pinger, & Davidson, 2015, Thierry Bryant, Nobles & Norris, 2016). The current pilot study tested a brief mindfulness-based intervention with low-income prekindergarten children. It was expected that the intervention would improve children’s EF, and EF would be associated with positive social-emotional outcomes.

Forty-eight children from 4 Head Start classrooms completed Time 1(T1) pretesting. The 4 classsrooms were randomly assigned to an immediate intervention (IIC) or a delayed start (DSC) condition (2 classrooms in each condition). All children were retested at the end of the IIC (Time 2:T2). The DSC classrooms then participated in the intervention, afterwhich all children were assessed a final time (Time 3:T3). Children completed EF tasks including, Head Toes Knees Shoulders (HTKS), Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS), Digit Span (DS), and Gift Wrap (GW), and teachers completed the BRIEF-P (Gioia, Espy, & Isquith, 2003) and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, 1997).

Repeated-measures analyses of variance (RANOVAs) for EF tasks showed a significant main effect for time for the DCCS [F (2,70) = 3.22, p < .05], with Bonferroni adjustments for multiple pairwise comparisons revealing that children’s performance improved between T1 and T3 (p < .05). A significant group by time interaction effect was found for the longest DS forward [F(2,68) = 3.29, p < .05], with Bonferroni tests showing that children in the DSC showed improved performance between T1 and T3 (p < .05). RANOVAs for BRIEF-P indices yielded a significant group by time interaction effect for Emergent Metacognition Index (BEMI) [F(2,66) = 4.03, p < .05]. Bonferroni tests showed that the BEMI dysfunction scores for the DSC were lower (better EF) at T2 and T3 (p < .05) than at T1, and at T3, children in the DSC had lower BEMI scores than children in the IIC. Correlations between children’s EF tasks and BRIEF-P indices appear in Table 1. At T3, higher DCCS scores and lower BEMI scores, were associated with higher levels of prosocial behavior [r(40) = .28, p < .05; r(44) = -.32, p < .05, respectively]. Also, higher Inhibitory Self-Control Index (BISCI) and Flexibility Index (BFI) scores were associated with higher total SDQ Behavioral Difficulties scores [r(44) = .53, p < .001; r(44) = .48, p < .001, respectively].

Results indicate some positive intervention effects on EF, and EF was associated with social-emotional outcomes. Results will be discussed with respect to intervention timing and contextual factors that likely impacted intervention effects.

Authors

• Leslie F Halpern, University at Albany
  Presenting Author

• Elisabeth J O'Rourke, University at Albany
  Non-Presenting Author

• Atara Siegel, University at Albany
  Non-Presenting Author

• Joseph Bettcher, University at Albany
  Non-Presenting Author