Assessing the impact of an emotion regulation booster program for elementary school-aged children.
The purpose of this study was to determine whether children who participated in a booster program 3 years after completing an emotion regulation program show a greater increase between pretest and post-test in the development of emotion regulation skills than children in a comparison group. A booster program was implemented as a pilot project with seven children ages 12-14. The contrast group consisted of eight children ages 10-14. Results of the study showed that the booster group had significant increases on 4 of 10 outcome measures: emotional awareness, emotional expressiveness, number of identified body cues, and number of identified calming activities. The contrast group showed no significant pretest post-test changes on the outcomes measured. EDITORS' STRATEGIC IMPLICATIONS: Replication will be required with a larger sample size, but the emotion regulation results presented are encouraging. Program developers and evaluators will benefit from the authors' discussion of the importance and role of booster programs.
Hammond
Angela
A
K-W Counselling Services, ON, Canada.
Westhues
Anne
A
Hanbidge
Alice Schmidt
AS
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires