Session: Promoting Healthy Social-Emotional Development for at-Risk Children in Different Community Settings (Society for Prevention Research 22nd Annual Meeting)

Children experience the greatest rate of development during the first 5 years of their lives, and besides the home, early childhood education and child care settings are where this growth predominately occurs. These community-based settings are often the first experience young children have in a group of other young children, and thus plausibly can facilitate positive interactions, the formation of positive relationships among children, and healthy social development, and prevent the development of social, behavioral, and school adjustment problems. These presentations focus on facilitating positive social-emotional development, reducing the risk for problem behaviors in preschool-age children, and improving self-regulation and school readiness skills. Each study uniquely focuses on different community settings that young children who are at-risk for increasing problem behaviors are in. The first presenter will talk about the association between self-regulation and school readiness and outcomes of a study to improve self-regulation in preschoolers who attend Head Start. The second speaker will show results of an efficacy trial on promoting positive social development in child care homes located in lower than average-income neighborhoods. The third presentation will describe the results of a school-readiness program for helping transition children who have developmental disabilities and behavior problems into Kindergarten. These presentations offer a breadth of early prevention efforts that show some positive effects.