School Psychology Review,

2007, Volume 36, No. 4, pp. 665-673

RESEARCH BRIEF

An Intervention to Promote Social Emotional School

Readiness in Foster Children: Preliminary Outcomes
From a Pilot Study

Katherine C. Pears, Philip A. Fisher, and Kimherly D. Bronz

Oregon Social Leaming Center

Abstract. Foster children are at great risk for poor school outcomes. Given that
school readiness is a powerful predictor of later school success, the promotion of
school readiness skills in foster children is an opportunity for preventive inter-
vention. Results are presented from a preliminary evaluation of a program
designed to improve school readiness in foster children. Twenty-four foster
children were randomly assigned to the intervention or comparison conditions.
The intervention consisted of therapeutic playgroups (twice weekly for 7 weeks
during the summer) focusing on social competence and self-regulation skills.
Attendance rates for the playgroups are reported. In addition, group differences on
data collected before and after the intervention are reported. Intervention group
children exhibited increased social competence and self-regulation. Comparison
group children exhibited poorer performance in these domains over time. Results
are discussed in terms of how the study has informed a current randomized
efficacy trial of a school-readiness intervention.

Children who lack the social and aca-
demic skills to succeed in the early elementary
grades are at risk for trajectories of increasing
academic failure and behavior problems
across their school years (Entwisle & Alex-
ander, 1999). Foster children often fare poorly
in school, showing higher rates of placement
in special education, school dropout, and dis-
cipline problems, as well as exhibiting poorer
academic skills than their non-foster care
peers (Zetlin & Weinberg, 2004). This study
describes the process by which a small-scale
pilot evaluation of an intervention designed to
improve school outcomes in foster children

Support for this research was provided by the following grants: ROI DA021424 from the National Institute
on Dnig Abuse, U.S. Public Health Service (PHS); ROI MH059780 from the National Institute of Mental
Health, U.S. PHS; and P30 MH046690 from the National Institute of Mental Health and the Office of
Research on Minority Health, U.S. PHS.
Correspondence regarding this article should be addressed to Katherine C. Pears, Oregon Social Leaming
Center, 10 Shelton McMurphey Boulevard, Eugene, OR 97401-4928; E-mail: katherinep@oslc.org
Copyright 2007 by the National Association of School Psychologists, ISSN 0279-6015
665
 School Psychology Review, 2007, Volume 36, No. 4
was used to examine preliminary outcomes
and to inform further development for a large-
scale efficacy trial.
Researchers and policy makers often
stress the necessity of social emotional compe-
tence (including self-regulation and social com-
petence skills) for success in the transition to
school and in the early school years because
deficits in these processes are linked to poorer
school performance (Raver, 2002). Foster chil-
dren who have been maltreated show deficits in
neurobiological self-regulatory systems (Fisher,
Gunnar, Dozier, Bruce, & Pears, 2006; Lewis,
Dozier, Ackerman, & Sepulveda, in press). Fur-
ther, they show poorer social competence than
their peers who have not been maltreated
(Rogosch, Cicchetti, & Aber, 1995), perhaps in
part because of connections observed in the gen-
eral population between poor self-regulation and
tendencies to react more negatively toward peers
(Gunnar, Tout, de Haan, Pierce, & Stansbury,
1997). Deficits in self-regulation and social com-
petence might put foster children at particular
risk when entering kindergarten for several rea-
sons. First, they are likely to have difficulty
inhibiting impulses that are disruptive to class-
room functioning, such as moving from their
seats or talking out of tum. Second, deficits in
self-regulation and social skills are likely to lead
to rejection by peers. Finally, difficulty in regu-
lating behavior might impede abilities to concen-
trate and leam new academic skills.
Given that foster children show particu-
lar vulnerabilities in social skills and self-
regulation, intervention strategies designed to
enhance functioning in these areas might help
these children to succeed in the early school
years and might defiect them from trajectories
toward school failure, dropout, and related
psychosocial problems. A number of empiri-
cally validated programs to enhance children's
social skills exist. However, these programs
are generally targeted at children who are in
first grade and above, tend not to include a
specific focus on self-regulatory skills (Web-
ster-Stratton & Taylor, 2001), and have not
been empirically validated with foster care
populations (Pears, Fisher, Heywood, &
Bronz, 2007).
666
The intervention in the current study
was specifically developed to increase foster
children's self-regulation and social compe-
tence in school by teaching regulatory and
social skills in a classroom-based format in
which the children were given multiple ex-
plicit opportunities to practice skills with a
group of unfamiliar peers. Before wide-scale
use, interventions should be subjected to em-
pirical validation, the gold standard of which
is the large-scale, randomized efficacy trial.
However, given the vulnerabilities of foster
children and the complexity of working with
the multiple agencies and individuals involved
in each child's care (e.g., child welfare ser-
vices, foster parents, and biological families),
before embarking on a large-scale efficacy
trial, it is desirable to first pilot test a new
intervention on a small sample. This can pro-
vide evidence of feasibility. When working
within public sector agencies such as the child
welfare system, establishing feasibility re-
quires gaining the participation of a number of
organizational and individual entities. The
child welfare agency must agree to participate
and allow randomization of the children into
groups, the individual caseworkers must allow
the foster families and children to be con-
tacted, and the foster families must agree to
participate and attend the intervention with
sufficient frequency. Pilot studies also allow
for the examination of preliminary out-
comes. Results from such pilot studies can
be used as a formative step in developing
interventions for large-scale, randomized ef-
ficacy trials.
The current study featured groups of foster
children randomly assigned to participate in the
intervention (a twice-weekly therapeutic play-
group described in the Methods section, under
Intervention and Comparison Conditions) or a
"services as usual" comparison condition. The
goals of the study were to test the feasibility of
the intervention by determining if the agency,
caseworkers, and foster families would agree to
participate, and by examining attendance rates,
to obtain preliminary results of intervention ef-
fects on social competence and self-regulation.

Methods
Participants
All foster children in Lane County, Or-
egon, entering kindergarten through second
grade in the fall of 2002 were eligible to
participate. Through a series of meetings with
key agency personnel, the study was intro-
duced, and permission was gained to recruit
foster children and to randomize the children
to one of the two conditions. Caseworkers
were asked to allow project staff to contact the
foster parents to explain the study and ask
them to participate. If this was permitted and
the foster parents agreed to participate in the
study, the caseworker and foster parents
signed consent forms. The 24 foster children
whose caregivers consented to participate
were randomly assigned to the intervention
group (IG; n = 11) or the foster care services
as usual comparison group (CG; n = 13).
Children were assigned to intervention or
comparison groups before contacting case-
workers; thus, the uneven group numbers re-
flect those who subsequently consented to par-
ticipate in the study. Eighty percent of eligible
families consented to participate in the study.
There were 6 IG males and 5 CG males. The
mean age was 6.49 years (SD = 0.86) for IG
children and 6.61 years (SD = 1.16) for CG
children. Children came from predominantly
European American backgrounds (91% in IG;
85% in CG). The children had been in their
current foster placement for an average
of 10.88 months {SD = 7.59 months) in the IG
group and 12.65 months {SD = 8.05 months)
in the CG group. Five (46%) of the IG chil-
dren and 5 (39%) of the CG children were in
nonrelative foster care (vs. kinship foster
care). Two of the IG children (18%) and 3 of
the CG children (23%) had received special
education services. Three IG children (27%)
but none of the CG children had repeated or
were going to repeat a grade; this was a sig-
nificant group difference [x^(l) = 4.05, p <
.05]. Although controlling for the group dif-
ference in grade repeaters would have been
ideal, the small sample size precluded this.
There were no other group differences on the
Promoting School Readiness in Foster Children
demographic variables listed in this section.
Because of subject attrition and missing data,
complete data were available for 10 IG chil-
dren and 10 CG children. The institutional
review board of our research center approved
all procedures.
Intervention and Comparison
Conditions
IG children attended 2-hr therapeutic
playgroups twice weekly for 7 weeks during
the summer. As noted previously, two compo-
nents of social emotional readiness were tar-
geted by the intervention: social competence
(including sharing, initiating and maintaining
interactions, cooperating and problem solving
with peers, and recognizing emotions) and
emotional and behavioral self-regulation (in-
cluding problem solving, managing negative
emotions, and using work-related skills). The
structure and content of the playgroups were
specifically designed to build self-regulation
and social competence skills in the following
ways: (a) because the classroom environment
itself represents one source of stimulation
when children enter school (Blair, 2002), the
intervention employed a peer group context in
a classroom setting to desensitize children to
this potential source of stress and dysregula-
tion; (b) the children were taught techniques
for self-regulation and social skills to increase
the resources to access in the school environ-
ment; and (c) the children were given oppor-
tunities to practice these skills across activi-
ties. The children's self-regulation strategies
were explicitly and frequently reinforced.
The curriculum manual for the playgroup
was developed by the authors (and others) and
outlined the activities for each of the playgroup
sessions. The basic routine included a welcom-
ing activity, a craft project, a snack, two circle
times, projects, and group games. Each session
focused on a single social skill (e.g., sharing),
and skills were taught using instructional tech-
niques that included preteaching, modeling, op-
portunities to practice skills, and immediate pos-
itive reinforcement. Skills were introduced and
modeled during circle time, and opportunities to
practice skills were embedded within subsequent
667
 School Psychology Review, 2007, Volume 36, No. 4
classroom activities. Specific social skills in-
cluded in the curriculum were sharing, initiating
and maintaining interactions, cooperating, prob-
lem solving, and recognizing emotions. A small
student-to-staff ratio (3:1) made it possible for
teachers to shape the children's skills and to
reward the children when they were successful.
In addition to social skills, the children
leamed techniques for self-regulation, which
were embedded within the routines and activ-
ities of the playgroups. As transition times in
classrooms can be particularly difficult for
children with poor self-regulatory skills, chil-
dren were taught to apply skills during transi-
tions and were given many additional oppor-
tunities to practice. At circle times, the skills
necessary for self-regulation within a class-
room (e.g., paying attention and listening)
were explicitly taught, modeled, and rein-
forced. Further, children were coached in the
use of techniques for regulating their emotions
during potentially difficult times, such as los-
ing a game or not being invited to play with
peers. Children received high rates of positive
verbal reinforcement for successfully manag-
ing their emotions during frustrating events.
Finally, behavior modification strategies, in-
cluding redirection, limit setting, and differen-
tial reinforcement of other children, were em-
ployed to encourage prosocial behavior.
Playgroup teachers were hired from a
pool of behavioral specialists who had expe-
rience working with foster children and using
the behavior management techniques em-
ployed in the playgroups. They were trained
using a variety of modalities, including curric-
ulum review, modeling and practice, and re-
view of videotaped playgroup sessions. Dur-
ing trainings before the start of the playgroups,
teachers reviewed the entire curriculum, and
each teacher led two practice playgroup ses-
sions. Teachers received ongoing training and
weekly supervision from a clinical supervisor
during the intervention period.
Fidelity of implementation of the play-
group curriculum was assessed via a checklist
of the essential elements of the playgroup cur-
riculum and the behavior management prac-
tices. On a weekly basis, a trained observer
indicated whether each element was observed.
668
The ratings indicated high consistency, with
every checklist indicating that all elements had
been observed.
CG children received foster care ser-
vices as usual from the child welfare agency,
which sometimes included early childhood
special education services. They did not attend
playgroups.
Measures
Foster parents completed questionnaires
within 2 weeks before (preintervention) and 2
weeks after (postintervention) the interven-
tion. At both preintervention and postinterven-
tion, laboratory assessors (who were blind to
group assignment) administered tasks to mea-
sure neuropsychological functioning (not dis-
cussed here) and completed ratings of the
child's behavior. All postintervention assess-
ments were completed before the start of the
school year. One month after the start of
school, the children's elementary school
teachers (who were blind to group assignment)
completed questionnaires about the children's
behaviors. CG children were assessed on the
same timeline.
Child Behavior Checklist (Achen-
bach, 1991a). Foster parents completed this
widely used measure of child competencies to
indicate the frequency with which children
displayed a variety of problem behaviors.
Scores were calculated for the Social Compe-
tence, Intemalizing Behavior, and Extemaliz-
ing Behavior subscales. Using a sample of 4-
to 11-year-olds, Achenbach reported aver-
age Cronbach's alphas of .56, .90, and .93,
respectively.
Teacher Report Form (Achenbach,
1991b). Elementary school teachers com-
pleted this measure, which parallels the Child
Behavior Checklist. Scores were calculated
for the Social Problems, Intemalizing Behav-
ior, and Extemalizing Behavior subscales. In a
sample of 5- to 11-year-olds, Achenbach re-
ported average Cronbach's alphas of .86, .91,
and .96, respectively.

Emotion Regulation Checklist (Shields
& Cicchetti, 1997). Foster parents, laboratory
assessors, and elementary teachers completed
this 27-item questionnaire designed to be used
by parents, teachers, and observers to measure a
number of aspects central to emotion regulation.
Laboratory assessors observed the children for
11/2-2 hr while they greeted the children and
their foster parents, escorted the children to tbe
assessment rooms, and worked with the children
to complete tasks to measure neuropsychologi-
cal functioning. Items were answered on a scale
of 1 {Rarely/never) to 4 {Almost always). Two
subscales were derived from the items: Emotion
Regulation and Lability/Negativity. For foster
parent ratings, mean Cronbach's standardized
alphas across assessment periods were .83 for
lability and .80 for emotion regulation. Because
assessors did not observe the children interacting
with their peers, items pertaining to the child's
behaviors with peers were removed. This re-
sulted in the removal of almost half of the emo-
tion regulation items. The standardized alpha for
the remaining items was not acceptable. Thus,
this scale was not computed for assessors. The
lability scale was retained and consisted of items
pertaining to the child's ability to make transi-
tions, modulate affect, and accept limits from
adults. Two assessors worked with each child at
each assessment period. Assessors' scores were
well correlated (r = .56 preintervention and .48
postintervention) and were averaged at each time
point to produce mean assessor ratings of labil-
ity. The modified assessor scale for lability had a
mean Cronbach's standardized alpha across as-
sessments of .90. For elementary teachers, mean
Cronbach's standardized alphas were .91 for la-
bility and .84 for emotion regulation.
For the foster parent and assessor mea-
sures, the differences between scores at the
preintervention and postintervention assess-
ment were computed. Because data were col-
lected only once from elementary teachers,
difference scores were not computed.
Results
Attendance Rates
Playgroup attendance logs were kept for
IG children, whose foster parents were respon-
Promoting School Readiness in Foster Children
sible for bringing them to the playgroups. The
median percentage of playgroups attended
was 85, with 73% of children attending at least
80% of the groups.
Preparation of Data for Group
Comparisons
Because of the small sample size, the
use of nonparametric tests was considered;
however, by using parametric tests, we were
able to retain the continuous nature of the data
and greater power to detect group differences.
Examination of skewness and kurtosis re-
vealed that the variable distributions were es-
sentially normal. Exceptions were the differ-
ence score for foster parent ratings of internal-
izing and externalizing and the teacher ratings
of social problems, internalizing, and external-
izing. As recommended by Tabachnick and
Fidell (2001), these variables were log trans-
formed; the resulting variables were normally
distributed. For all variables, the assumption
of equal variances in the two samples was
valid. Box plots of the data were examined to
locate outliers. Deleting these cases from the
sample could have resulted in the loss of
power. Instead, each case was recoded to the
next highest value within 2 standard devia-
tions of the mean for the child's group, as per
Tabachnick and Fidell (2001). Preliminary
analyses revealed no group differences on any
of the variables before the intervention.
Foster Parent Report and Assessor
Report Group Comparisons
Mean scores and standard deviations for
the IG and CG children are presented in Table
1. Multivariate, two-sample Hotelling's T^
tests were used to control for Type I error.
Separate analyses were conducted for the pre-
intervention to postintervention difference
scores on measures rated by foster parents,
and for elementary school teacher data. For
the difference scores, the overall Hotelling's
T^ was significant [T^ (6,16) = 39.71, p <
.05]. The univariate t tests revealed a signifi-
cant group difference on foster parent ratings
of social competence {t = 3.27, p < .05). The
IG children showed increased social compe-
669
 School Psychology Review, 2007, Volume 36, No. 4

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670
 Promoting School Readiness in Foster Children

tence over time, and the CG children showed higher rate than reported by other (longer)
slightly decreased social competence over summer programs for at-risk children (e.g.,
time. The strength of the association between August, Lee, Bloomquist, Realmuto, & Hekt-
group membership and the difference in social ner, 2003).
competence score was large, d = 1.55. There Results of group comparisons suggest
was also a significant group difference on as- that the intervention group exhibited increased
sessor ratings of differences in lability social competence as rated by their foster par-
(t = 2.42, p < .05). The CG children showed ents. On average, the comparison group exhib-
increased lability and the IG children showed ited slightly decreased social competence. In
slightly decreased lability. The association be- addition, on measures of self-regulation, the
tween group membership and the difference in intervention group showed lower assessor-
assessor rated lability was large, d = 1.15. rated emotional lability over time, whereas
Although there were no significant group the comparison group showed increased labil-
differences on the other scales, the means for ity. Thus, the intervention appeared to help
foster parent-reported lability indicated that IG stabilize children's behavior, whereas the be-
children showed a decrease in lability that was havior of children in the comparison group
greater than three times that shown by CG deteriorated.
children; further, 82% of IG children (vs. 50% In contrast, there were no group differ-
of CG children) showed decreased lability. In ences in teacher-reported school behavior.
addition, IG children showed a greater (al- This may have resulted from the 3-year age
though nonsignificant) decrease over time in span ofthe children (kindergarten through sec-
extemalizing behavior reported by foster ond grade). Because the older children had
parents. been in school before, their pattems of school
behavior might have been more established,
Teacher Report Group Comparisons perhaps making them less responsive to the
intervention. In addition, there were more
No significant group differences on the grade repeaters in the intervention group, sug-
teacher report measures were found (see Table 1). gesting that these children may already have
had histories of greater difficulties in school.
Discussion
Finally, school reputations become established
This small-scale, randomized efficacy very early (Morison & Masten, 1991), and •
trial was designed to test the feasibility of such reputations may have affected teachers'
delivering an intervention to increase social ratings of the older children. This result has
emotional competence in foster children and led us to focus our current efforts solely on
to examine intervention effects on key out- children entering kindergarten.
comes, with the goal of using the infonnation In sum, the results from this study sug-
to inform a larger randomized efficacy trial. In gest some positive effects. Like many pilot
terms of feasibility, it was important to estab- studies, this trial involved a small sample,
lish that key participants would be willing to which may have constrained the power to find
participate. We were able to obtain agency significant group differences. In addition, that
participation, and caseworkers allowed project the first- and second-graders in the study had
staff to contact the foster families to offer already attended school may have obscured
them the chance to be in the study. Of the differences pertaining to kindergarteners, who
eligible families, 80% agreed to participate. It were more likely to benefit from the play-
was also important to establish that foster par- groups' classroom-like setting. It should also
ents would bring children to intervention be noted that the foster parents of children in
groups, given that they must often attend mul- the intervention condition were not blind to
tiple appointments for the children in their the children's participation in an intervention,
care. In the present study, 73% of the children which could have influenced their behavior
attended 80% or more of the playgroups, a ratings. However, the children showed changes
671
 School Psychology Review, 2007, Volume 36, No. 4
in emotional lability on ratings by assessors,
who were blind to group assignment. Finally,
assessor-reported lability did not include items
about peer relations. Thus, although differ-
ences between groups in assessor ratings of
lability might have reflected changes in the
children's reactions to working with adults in
tasks like those they might complete at school,
they were unlikely to reflect changes in mod-
ulating affect with peers.
As mentioned earlier, one of the primary
purposes of this pilot study was to inform
revisions of the intervention for use in a large-
scale, randomized efficacy trial. Based on the
results of this study, a number of modifica-
tions were made to the intervention. Because
the age span of the children might have con-
tributed to difficulties in detecting group dif-
ferences in school behavior and because chil-
dren's success in kindergarten might affect
their long-range academic trajectories, the re-
vised curriculum focuses exclusively on chil-
dren entering kindergarten. In addition, to sup-
port the children through the transition to kin-
dergarten, the playgroups now continue once
weekly during the first 8 weeks of school. To
assist children who might have more trouble
with the transition to school, the option of
home and school behavioral consultation to
address behavioral difficulties has been added
to the program. Further, given the increased
focus on school readiness, the curriculum has
been revised to feature emergent literacy skills
in addition to foci on self-regulation and social
competence.
Caregiver involvement in school is an
important component of success in kinder-
garten and continued academic achievement
(Christenson, 1999); during the pilot study,
foster parents commented that they would
have liked more information on supporting
their children in school. Thus, foster parent
information groups focused on involvement
in emergent literacy and school have been
added to the intervention. The resulting in-
tervention, the Kids in Transition to School
Program, is currently being tested via a ran-
domized efficacy trial. It involves the re-
cruitment of 200 children over 4 years (ran-
domized into intervention and comparison
672
groups) who enter kindergarten in the fall of
their recruitment year.
Past evidence has suggested that, with-
out intervention, foster children might fare
much worse than their peers on school perfor-
mance. The current study tested an interven-
tion designed to promote positive school out-
comes in foster children. Preliminary results
suggested positive effects on children's social
competence and self-regulatory skills, and led
to several modifications to the intervention. A
randomized trial of the resulting Kids in Tran-
sition to School Program will further examine
intervention effects on school readiness and
later school functioning. If the Kids in Tran-
sition to School Program can better prepare
foster children for kindergarten entry, this
might have longer term effects on their aca-
demic and social outcomes as well as their
overall psychosocial functioning.
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Zetlin, A. G., & Weinberg, L. A. (2004). Understanding
the plight of foster youth and improving their educa-
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Date Received: February 17, 2006
Date Accepted: July 17, 2007
Action Editor: John Hintze

Katherine C. Pears, PhD, is a research scientist at Oregon Social Leaming Center. Her
reseiirch interests include school readiness in high-risk populations and interventions to
improve school readiness outcomes, the development of social cognitive and social-
emotional skills in high-risk preschool children, and the effects of early adversity on child
sociiil and cognitive development.

Philip A. Fisher, PhD, is a research scientist at Oregon Social Leaming Center and a
senior scientist at Center for Research to Practice. His research interests include preven-
tion research in the early years of life, the effects of early stress on the developing brain,
and the plasticity of neural systems in response to environmental interventions.

Kimberly Bronz, PhD, is a school psychologist and clinician at Oregon Social Leaming
Center, Center for Research to Practice, and Oregon Social Leaming Center Community
Programs. She is the clinical director for the Kids in Transition to School Program as well
as tlie Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care for Preschoolers Program.

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