Influence of Consultative Alliance on Teacher and Classroom Outcomes of Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation

• In Event: 2-099 - Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation: Child Outcomes, Classroom Outcomes and Order of Effects

Integrative Statement

Young children’s social and emotional development is powerfully shaped by their early environments (Dirks et al., 2012), which for many young children includes early childhood education (ECE) settings. ECE quality – including factors such as classroom climate and teacher-child relationships – impacts the extent to which young children benefit from ECE programming (Hamre & Pianta, 2003; Mashburn et al. 2008; Merritt et al., 2012) especially for young children with challenging behaviors (Buyse et al., 2008; Pianta et al., 2008; Silver et al., 2005). Thus, intervention designs that emphasize the teacher as a key agent of change have a unique opportunity to influence a range of child outcomes (Donnell and Gettinger, 2015; Pas et al., 2014).
Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (ECMHC) is an intervention that pairs teachers and mental health consultants (MHCs) to promote teacher capacity to foster social-emotional wellbeing at the classroom-level and individual child-level. While there is a growing literature to support ECMHC models, little research has investigated how this model works. The logic model for ECMHC posits that the quality of the relationship between teachers and MHCs – which is here termed Consultative Alliance (CA) – is a key mechanism of change (Duran et al., 2009; Johnston & Brinamen, 2012). In addition, it is thought that changes to the teacher and classroom are a necessary precondition to reductions in challenging child behaviors (Duran et al., 2009). The current study explored the impact of CA on child outcomes and the mediation effect of classroom changes.
Participants were Mental Health Consultants (n=62), teachers (n=289) and children (n=316; mean age = 42.44; 73.6% male, 54.4% White, 22.8% Hispanic) engaged in a state-funded implementation of ECMHC in the Southwest (see Table 1). Data were collected at baseline and after six months of consultation. Outcome measures included the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA; LeBuffe & Naglierie, 1999; 2003) and Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS, Pianta, 2001). CA was measured with a single MHC-reported item.
Multilevel modeling was used to account for the nested nature of the data. Results indicated that CA positively predicted improvements in classroom climate, teacher self-efficacy, and teacher perceptions of her job over six months. Furthermore, preliminary mediation analyses indicated that there was a significant indirect effect of positive classroom climate on the link between CA and two child-level outcomes (specifically, self-control and teacher-child conflict, see Figure 1).
These findings align with ECMHC’s logic model by providing preliminary support for 1) the impact the Consultative Alliance on teacher and classroom outcomes and 2) the indirect effect of changes to classroom functioning on child outcomes. These findings have salient policy and practice implications, including professional development, program evaluation, and quality improvement.

Authors

• Annie Davis, The Catholic University of America
  Presenting Author

• Sandra Barrueco, The Catholic University of America
  Non-Presenting Author

• Deborah Perry, Georgetown University
  Non-Presenting Author