Teachers and Parents as Partners During Middle School RCT

Randomized Controlled Trial of Teachers and Parents as Partners During Middle School

There are two aims of this study (a) to examine the effect of Teachers and Parents as Partners on student, parent, and teacher outcomes in middle school and (b) identify barriers and facilitators to implementing Teachers and Parents as Partners in middle school for students with behavior concerns.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Behavior Disorders
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Teachers and Parents as Partners

Detailed Description

In the business-as-usual control condition, participants will have access to any services that a school would routinely provide (e.g., develop and implement a behavior support plan) as well as services families can access in the community (e.g., mental health support).

Teachers and Parents as Partners will occur in a series of stages comprised of approximately four structured meetings over approximately 8 weeks. A Teachers and Parents as Partners consultant will meet together with a student's parent(s), teachers, other school personnel (as appropriate), and the student (as appropriate). The Teachers and Parents as Partners team will collaboratively address behavior problem solving objectives. Specific TAPP objectives include: identifying strengths and specific behaviors of concern, specifying alternative prosocial behaviors, creating measurable behavior goals, co-constructing behavior intervention/support plans to address the target concerns, creating sustainable conditions to support plan implementation at home and school, and evaluating the plan to assess progress toward goals.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 96
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Wisconsin
    • Madison, Wisconsin, United States, 53706
      • University of Wisconsin-Madison

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 10 years to 17 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Students will be eligible if they have scores in the "elevated" or "extremely elevated" risk categories on the parent or teacher version of the Behavior Assessment Scale for Children (BASC) 3 Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BESS). Parents, and primary teachers and school staff associated with an eligible student will be included.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Students who do not meet the inclusion criteria will be excluded from participation, which includes their parent(s), teachers, and other school personnel. Students also may not be eligible if they have mental health concerns or severe behavior problems that may not be appropriate for Teachers and Parents as Partners or a research project (e.g., some internalizing problems, students who pose an risk of harming themselves).

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Teachers and Parents as Partners Intervention; Teachers and Parents as Partners will occur in a series of stages comprised of approximately four structured meetings over approximately 8 weeks. A Teachers and Parents as Partners consultant will meet together with a student's parent(s), teachers, other school personnel (as appropriate), and the student (as appropriate). The Teachers and Parents as Partners team will collaboratively address behavior problem solving objectives. Specific objectives include: identifying strengths and specific behaviors of concern, specifying alternative prosocial behaviors, creating measurable behavior goals, co-constructing behavior intervention/support plans to address the target concerns, creating sustainable conditions to support plan implementation at home and school, and evaluating the plan to assess progress toward goals.	Behavioral: Teachers and Parents as Partners; Family-school partnership intervention
No Intervention: Business as usual control; In the business-as-usual control condition, participants will have access to any services that a school would routinely provide (e.g., develop and implement a behavior support plan) as well as services families can access in the community (e.g., mental health support).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Behavior Assessment Scale for Children (assessing change)	Report of child behavior	pretest and about 12 weeks later at posttest
Social Skills Improvement System (assessing change)	Report of child social skills	pretest and about 12 weeks later at posttest
Direct behavior rating (assessing change)	Ratings of child behavior	Time series during the approx 12 week intervention
Goal attainment scaling (through study completion)	Ratings of goals met	At the conclusion of the intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Academic Competence Evaluation (assessing change)	Reports of child academic competence	pretest and about 12 weeks later at posttest
Parent-teacher relationship scale (assessing change)	Ratings of the parent-teacher relationship	pretest and about 12 weeks later at posttest
Competence in problem solving (assessing change)	Parent and teacher ratings of their competence in problem solving	pretest and about 12 weeks later at posttest
Parent monitoring scale (assessing change)	Ratings of parent monitoring child activities	pretest and about 12 weeks later at posttest
Behavior intervention rating scale-revised (through study completion)	Ratings of intervention acceptability	At the conclusion of the intervention
Work completion (assessing change)	Ratings of student work completion	Time series during the approx 12 week intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Wisconsin, Madison

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 30, 2018
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 15, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): June 15, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 22, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 29, 2018
• First Posted (Actual): August 3, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 18, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 15, 2023
• Last Verified: September 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2018-0165; A173000 (Other Identifier: UW Madison); EDUC/EDUC PSYCHOLOGY (Other Identifier: UW Madison); R324B160043 (Other Grant/Funding Number: US Dept of Education); Protocol Version 7/29/2020 (Other Identifier: UW Madison)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED
• IPD Plan Description: This study is funded by the Institute of Education Sciences. Thus, we comply with the IES policy on data sharing as well as other policies and regulations governing research awards.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No