KITS: School Readiness in Foster Care Efficacy Trial

School Readiness Clinical Trial

— KITS  

Official title:

KITS: School Readiness in Foster Care Efficacy Trial

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT00688129
• Other study ID #: R01DA021424
• Secondary ID: R01DA021424
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• First received: May 28, 2008
• Last updated: September 18, 2017
• Start date: September 2005
• Est. completion date: December 31, 2016

Study information

• Verified date: September 2017
• Source: Oregon Social Learning Center
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The KITS project is a 5-year randomized trial to evaluate a program designed to enhance academic and social-emotional aspects of school readiness for foster preschoolers.

Description:

The overarching goal of this research project is to conduct a randomized efficacy trial of a preventive intervention—the Kids in Transition to School (KITS) program—to enhance socioemotional and academic school readiness among preschool-aged foster children. Foster children are at great risk for poor social and academic school outcomes. Because of their experiences of early adversity, these children may have particular vulnerabilities that decrease the likelihood of a successful transition to school. Extensive prior research has shown that chronic early adversity is associated with alterations in the functioning of key neural systems (specifically, prefrontal cortex function and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity) related to self-regulation and stress reactivity. Alterations in these systems may interfere with children's abilities to relate to peers, to maintain focused attention, to follow directions, and to learn academic skills. Additionally, because these children are likely to have experienced multiple living transitions, they may be at a disadvantage in terms of caregiver involvement in school, a critical aspect of early school success. Foster children are recruited in the spring before they enter kindergarten and randomly assigned to the intervention and comparison conditions. The KITS intervention includes three components: (a) child therapeutic play groups to facilitate the development of self-regulatory, social, and emergent literacy skills; (b) a psychoeducational support group to promote caregiver involvement in the child's emergent literacy and schooling and the use of effective parenting techniques; (c) home- and school-based behavioral consultation. The intervention coincides with the transition into kindergarten. Multi-method, multi-agent assessments of the children's socioemotional readiness and literacy skills are conducted at baseline, kindergarten entry, and postkindergarten. We will examine the direct effects of the intervention on school readiness and kindergarten outcomes. We will also assess whether intervention effects are mediated through mechanisms of stress reactivity and regulation and caregiver variables. Finally, we will test for moderator effects of child and contextual characteristics including early adversity (prenatal/neonatal health, maltreatment history and placement history), child cognitive functioning, and placement transitions during the course of the study. An additional exploratory aim of the study is to examine intervention effects on first and second grade outcomes for subsamples of children. Group comparisons and longitudinal growth modeling will allow for evaluation of hypotheses.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 192
• Est. completion date: December 31, 2016
• Est. primary completion date: December 31, 2016
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 4 Years to 6 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• a child currently in foster care

• living in Lane or Marion County, Oregon

• eligible to enter Kindergarten in fall of assessment year (age 5 by September 1 of assessment year)

Exclusion Criteria:

• medical or developmental condition which would prevent the child from completing the assessment tasks

• current or previous involvement in Oregon Social Learning Center treatment programs

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• School Readiness

Intervention

Behavioral:
• KITS Program
This is a 4-month psychosocial intervention for foster children entering kindergarten and their caregivers beginning the summer before kindergarten. The KITS intervention consists of: (a) child therapeutic play groups to facilitate the development of self-regulatory, social, and emergent literacy skills (2 times per week in summer, 1 times per week in the fall); (b) a bi-monthly psychoeducational support group to promote caregiver involvement in the child's emergent literacy and schooling and the use of effective parenting techniques; (c) home- and school-based behavioral consultation on an as needed basis.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Oregon Social Learning Center	Eugene	Oregon

Sponsors (3)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Oregon Social Learning Center	Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

References & Publications (3)

Pears KC, Fisher PA, Bronz KD. An Intervention to Promote Social Emotional School Readiness in Foster Children: Preliminary Outcomes From a Pilot Study. School Psych Rev. 2007;36(4):665-673. — View Citation

Pears KC, Fisher PA, Kim HK, Bruce J, Healey CV, Yoerger K. Immediate Effects of a School Readiness Intervention for Children in Foster Care. Early Educ Dev. 2013 Aug;24(6):771-791. — View Citation

Pears KC, Kim HK, Fisher PA. Effects of a School Readiness Intervention for Children in Foster Care on Oppositional and Aggressive Behaviors in Kindergarten. Child Youth Serv Rev. 2012 Dec;34(12):2361-2366. — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Early literacy skills		pre-intervention, pre-kindergarten, end of kindergarten
Primary	Social skills		pre-intervention, pre-kindergarten, end of kindergarten
Primary	Regulatory skills		pre-intervention, pre-kindergarten, end of kindergarten
Primary	Caregiver involvement		pre-intervention, pre-kindergarten, end of kindergarten
Secondary	Academic achievement		post-kindergarten, post 1st grade, post 2nd grade
Secondary	Peer relations		post 1st grade, post 2nd grade

External Links

•   Oregon Social Learning Center website