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Between 9 and 15% of kindergarten pupils can be characterized by a frequent display of behavioural problems. There is a risk that these pupils will encounter learning and social difficulties over the course of their development. It is therefore important to establish preventive interventions for them at the very beginning of the education process. Moreover, several risk factors contribute to the emergence and continuation of these difficulties. These factors involve the children themselves (e.g. anger management, processing social information, social skills), their families (e.g. educational practices, quality of the relationship), their peer groups (e.g. rejection by peers, deviant friends) and the school environment (e.g. preparation for school, relationship with the teacher). The effect of these risk factors is particularly felt in early education.
In the early 90s, the Centre de Psychoéducation du Québec (CPEQ) began providing a prevention program that targets these children. Today, this program, known as Fluppy, has been established in several regions of Quebec, and it is estimated that more than 100 000 kindergarten pupils have been exposed to it since its creation. Application of the Fluppy program in kindergarten is now recommended by the Quebec Public Health Program. In 2002, in response to requests from practice communities, our team of researchers undertook to assess the program’s implementation and effectiveness. This assessment project is being conducted through a partnership involving our researchers, the Agence de développement des services de santé et des services sociaux de Laval (health and social services development agency), the Centre de services de santé et de services sociaux de Laval (health and social services centre), the Commission scolaire de Laval (school board) and the CPEQ.
The Fluppy program as provided by the CPEQ involves several interventions at the kindergarten level:
In addition to assessing the impact of this so-called “traditional” version of the program, our team of researchers undertook to enhance it by adding two new components:
Finally, we also decided to improve the program by extending it over two years (i.e., kindergarten and Grade 1). The research parameters that we developed in collaboration with our partners enable us to determine:
a) the effectiveness of the “traditional” and “improved” versions of the program; and b) whether extending it to two years makes it more effective.
a) the effectiveness of the “traditional” and “improved” versions of the program; and
b) whether extending it to two years makes it more effective.
This research project had three objectives:
Conducting this evaluative research necessitated recourse to a very large sample. Three cohorts of students spread over three consecutive years were therefore created. In total, 320 children presenting a high level of behavioural problems and drawn from more than 250 kindergarten classes from the Laval school board were recruited. Screening of these students took into account the perspective of both teacher and parent. These students were randomly distributed in four experimental groups and one control group. The four experimental groups involved different combinations of the program components. Evaluative measurements were drawn from the parents, teachers and students before beginning the interventions, and once again at the end of kindergarten and Grade 1. Implementation of the interventions was also evaluated.
The study of the development and implementation of the interventions led to a number of findings. First, we were confronted with a problem of non-differentiation between the control group and the experimental groups. Second, the interventions were less well established in one of the experimental groups. These problems forced us to reconfigure our specifications for conducting the impact analyses. Finally, the development and implementation of the interventions overall was more successful in kindergarten than in Grade 1.
Impact analyses were conducted at the end of kindergarten (controlling for the pre-test) and again at the end of Grade 1 in order to determine the effect of the duration (1 year versus 2) of the interventions. Several conclusions emerge from these analyses. First, targeted interventions established in kindergarten had benefits that were reflected in a decrease in externalized problems, improved social behaviour and better performance in French tests. Some of these benefits also continued up to the end of Grade 1. Secondly, very few effects related specifically to the duration of the interventions were observed. Therefore, extending the interventions over two years (including the first year of elementary school) does not appear to have increased the benefits. Finally, it is important to mention that several of these benefits are only observed among girls.
This evaluative research will continue in the coming years. Assessments are anticipated of monitoring efforts up to the end of elementary school. This information will enable us to determine the impact of the interventions on development paths and to test certain mediation and moderation models. Finally, evaluative research in partnership with practice communities presents several important challenges, including in particular the establishment of experimental specifications with a control group and random distribution of participants, access to the required human and financial resources, recruitment and retention of participants and the development of interventions and evaluation of their implementation.
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