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Poster #15 - The Effects of INSIGHTS on Developmental Trajectories of Children’s Self-regulation Skills

Fri, March 24, 2:30 to 3:15pm, Salt Palace Convention Center, Floor: 1, Hall A-B

Abstract

The development of self-regulation skills is critical for children’s positive interactions with others and successful adjustment to school. Using their self-regulation skills, children are able to adapt their temperamental, emotional, and behavioral reactions to environmental stimuli. INSIGHTS into Children’s Temperament (INSIGHTS; McClowry, 2014) is a temperament-based intervention that improves kindergarten and first-grade children’s social-emotional development and academic learning. INSIGHTS involves two components: (1) providing teachers temperament-based strategies for responding to children’s needs and scaffolding children’s self-regulation skills, and (2) introducing children to temperament-based, social-emotional problem-solving strategies.
In this study, we examined the effects of INSIGHTS on children’s development of self-regulation (i.e., attention, inhibitory control) in the classroom during the kindergarten and first-grade years. We examined whether children in rural Midwestern elementary schools who participated in the INSIGHTS intervention exhibited increases in self-regulation in the classroom relative to their peers in control classrooms. In addition, we explored the effects of children’s baseline self-regulation and the effects of the intervention on children’s developmental trajectories.
Children (N = 72, Age M = 5.47, SD = .50) from 35 classrooms in study Cohort 1 were randomly assigned to INSIGHTS or control conditions by school. The INSIGHTS intervention was delivered to teachers and children for 10 weeks in spring of kindergarten and again for 10 weeks during fall of first grade. Children’s self-regulation skills were examined at four different times (i.e., before and after each implementation of INSIGHTS in kindergarten and first grade). Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders (HTKS; McClelland et al., 2014) was used to assess children’s attention and inhibitory control, and the Leiter-3 (Roid & Koch, 2017) was used to assess children’s sustained attention. Both assessments were administered to each study child individually. The intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were .26 for HTKS (design effect of 1.7) and .44 for Leiter (design effect of 2.2). Given these values, all analyses utilized Huber-White based methods (White, 1980; as implemented in Mplus Version 8) for correcting standard error estimates for clustering effects.
Multiple regression models were fit which used the treatment condition (coded 0 = control, 1 = INSIGHTS treatment) as a predictor of Time 4 outcome (i.e., Leiter, HTKS) scores controlling for initial (i.e., Time 1) score. Results of these analyses suggested that INSIGHTS children exhibited greater self-regulation at Time 4 as compared with children in the control group. Additionally, latent growth curve models were used to model linear growth in Leiter/HTKS over the four time points. The treatment indicator was used as a predictor of latent slope and intercept factors. Results of these analyses suggested that INSIGHTS children experienced increased growth rates for attention, inhibitory control, and sustained attention compared with children in the control group.
Our study provides evidence for positive effects of a social-emotional classroom intervention on the developmental trajectory of children's temperamental regulation. INSIGHTS is an effective universal intervention, and that is largely due to the attention to temperamental differences children bring to the classroom. Child temperament can be used as a foundation for intervention or teacher education programs aimed at improving child self-regulation skills.

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