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Testing the Efficacy of Coping Power Universal on Behavioral Problems and Pre-academic Skills in Preschoolers

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Abstract

The Coping Power Program is an evidence-based intervention for children identified to be at risk for developing externalizing behavioral problems. The Coping Power Program has been adapted to universally prevent behavioral problems in school-aged children. This study sought to test the efficacy of this adaptation, the Coping Power Universal program, on preschoolers' behavioral difficulties and pre-academic skills. Teachers delivered the intervention in their classes. The study included a sample of Italian children (N = 250, 125 boys) with a mean age of 4.50 years (SD = .50) at the beginning of the study. Classrooms of these children were randomly assigned to receive either the intervention or the Italian preschool standard curriculum. Measures included a questionnaire and objective and standardized measures for numerical intelligence and metaphonological skills delivered by a psychologist to the preschoolers. Classes in which teachers applied the Coping Power Universal program showed lower problematic behaviors and higher pre-academic skills than those in which teachers followed the standard curriculum only. Although further studies are still needed, the current findings showed that the Coping Power Universal program can be adapted for preschoolers with good results. Implications for practice, methodological limitations, and directions for future research are reviewed.

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The data are freely available from the corresponding author.

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Funding

Grant RC 2016-2018 funded by the Italian Ministry of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, Scientific Institute of Child Neurology and Psychiatry, Viale del Tirreno 331, Calambrone, 56018, Pisa, Italy

    Pietro Muratori, Iacopo Bertacchi, Consuelo Giuli & Alessia Modena

  2. Disfor, University of Genoa, Genova, Italy

    David Giofrè

  3. Comune di Manciano, Grosseto, Italy

    Alessandra Darini

  4. University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Elisa Lai

  5. University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, USA

    John E. Lochman

  6. Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy

    Irene Mammarella

Authors
  1. Pietro Muratori
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  2. David Giofrè
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  3. Iacopo Bertacchi
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  4. Alessandra Darini
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  5. Consuelo Giuli
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  6. Elisa Lai
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  7. Alessia Modena
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  8. John E. Lochman
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  9. Irene Mammarella
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Correspondence to Pietro Muratori.

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Conflict of interest

John E. Lochman is the co-developer of the Coping Power program and receives royalties from the Oxford University Press for the Coping Power Implementation Guides for the Child Group Program and the Parent Group Program. He is also the PI on grants from NICHD and NIDA, which provide funding for intervention, research on the Coping Power program. Pietro Muratori, Iacopo Bertacchi and Consuelo Giuli are the developers of the CPU and receive royalties from Erikson press for the CPU manuals. All the other authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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The authors assert that all procedures contributing to this work comply with the ethical standards of the relevant national and institutional committees on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008.

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Muratori, P., Giofrè, D., Bertacchi, I. et al. Testing the Efficacy of Coping Power Universal on Behavioral Problems and Pre-academic Skills in Preschoolers. Early Childhood Educ J 50, 613–625 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-021-01179-0

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