Enhancing Early Care and Education Through Reflective Supervision

Enhancing Early Care and Education Through Reflective Supervision to Promote Adaptive Emotion Regulation in Young Children

The goal of this clinical trial is to test an enhancement to early care and education, which is a professional development series that includes a foundational training and skill development workshops focused on training and supporting early learning supervisors in Reflective Practice and Supervision. Directors and education coordinators within state pre-kindergarten programs, and the teachers they supervise, will be the focus of this research. Hypothesized outcomes include promotion of reflective capacity and supervisory skill in supervisors, more effective supervisor-supervisee interactions, increases in reflective functioning and well-being in supervisees, increases in positive teaching practices and observed classroom quality, and increases in adaptive social-emotional development among children alongside prevention of emotion regulation difficulties. Researchers will compare whether these outcomes differ between participants who are currently receiving the Reflective Supervision enhancement and participants who are in the waitlist control condition.

Study Overview

• Status: Enrolling by invitation
• Conditions: Emotion Regulation
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Reflective Supervision Enhancement

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 32
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Rhode Island
    • Riverside, Rhode Island, United States, 02915
      • Bradley Hospital

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Supervisor in Rhode Island state pre-kindergarten program

Exclusion Criteria:

• Does not meet inclusion criteria above

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Reflective Supervision Enhancement; The Reflective Supervision enhancement is a professional development series for supervisors of state pre-kindergarten programs that is designed to build skills in using Reflective Supervision with teachers. The goal of the Reflective Supervision enhancement is to provide supervisors with foundational knowledge in Reflective Practice and Supervision and increase their use of Reflective Supervision principles and practices within their work. The series consists of a day-long foundational training and nine skills-focused workshops. Supervisors are expected to receive 8 hours of foundational training prior to the start of the academic year, and nine 2-hour monthly small groups over the course of the academic year.	Behavioral: Reflective Supervision Enhancement; The Reflective Supervision enhancement is a professional development series designed to train and support directors and education coordinators supervising state pre-kindergarten classrooms in using a reflective supervision approach with their staff.
No Intervention: Business-As-Usual Waitlist Control; Supervisors in the business-as-usual waitlist control condition will supervise teachers as-per-usual (i.e., using standard administrative supervision), and will be eligible for the typical array of professional development opportunities that may be offered to them. These supervisors will receive the Reflective Supervision enhancement the following academic year.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change from Baseline Teaching Progress Assessment at 9 months	Rhode Island Department of Education record review	At baseline (beginning of academic year), and in 9 months
Change from Baseline Teaching Progress Assessment at 12 months	Rhode Island Department of Education record review	At baseline (beginning of academic year), and in 12 months
Change from 9-month Teaching Progress Assessment at 12 months	Rhode Island Department of Education record review	At 9 months (end of academic year), and in 12 months (beginning of next academic year)
Change from Baseline Observed Classroom Quality at 9 months	Pre-K Classroom Assessment Scoring System, scores range from 1 (minimally characteristic) to 7 (highly characteristic), with higher scores indicating higher classroom quality	At baseline (beginning of academic year), and in 9 months
Change from Baseline Observed Classroom Quality at 12 months	Pre-K Classroom Assessment Scoring System, scores range from 1 (minimally characteristic) to 7 (highly characteristic), with higher scores indicating higher classroom quality	At baseline (beginning of academic year), and in 12 months
Change from 9-month Observed Classroom Quality at 12 months	Pre-K Classroom Assessment Scoring System, scores range from 1 (minimally characteristic) to 7 (highly characteristic), with higher scores indicating higher classroom quality	At 9 months (end of academic year), and in 12 months (beginning of next academic year)
Change from Baseline Child Social-Emotional Functioning as assessed by Cognitive Toybox at 9 months	Rhode Island Department of Education record review	At baseline (beginning of academic year), and in 9 months
Change from Baseline Child Emotion Regulation at 9 months	Social Competence Scale - Teacher Version, Emotion Regulation subscale, scores range from 0 to 4 with higher scores indicating greater emotion regulation	At baseline (beginning of academic year), and in 9 months
Change from Baseline Child Prosocial/Communication Skills at 9 months	Social Competence Scale - Teacher Version, Prosocial/Communication subscale, scores range from 0 to 4 with higher scores indicating greater prosocial/communication skills	At baseline (beginning of academic year), and in 9 months
Change from Baseline Child Social Competence at 9 months	Social Competence Scale - Teacher Version, Total Social Competence Score, scores range from 0 to 4 with higher scores indicating greater social competence	At baseline (beginning of academic year), and in 9 months
Change from Baseline Child-Teacher Relationship Quality at 9 months	Student-Teacher Relationship Scale - Short Form, scores range from 1 to 5 with higher scores indicating a more positive relationship	At baseline (beginning of academic year) and in 9 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change from Baseline Supervisor Reflective Capacity at 9 months	Reflective Supervision Rating Scale, Adapted Version, scores range from 1 to 4 with higher scores indicating greater reflective capacity	At baseline (beginning of academic year) and in 9 months
Change from Baseline Supervisory Competence at 9 months	Supervisor Self-Assessment, scores range from 1 to 5 with higher scores indicating greater supervisory competence	At baseline (beginning of academic year) and in 9 months
Change from Baseline Supervisor Reflective Functioning at 9 months	Reflective Functioning Questionnaire, scores range from 1 to 7 with higher scores indicating greater reflective functioning	At baseline (beginning of academic year) and in 9 months
Change from Baseline Supervisor Well-Being at 9 months	Professional Quality of Life Scale, scores range from 1 to 5 with higher scores indicating greater well-being	At baseline (beginning of academic year) and in 9 months
Change from Baseline Quality of Reflective Supervision Relationship at 9 months	Reflective Interaction Observation Scale, scores range from 1 to 5 with higher scores indicating a higher quality relationship	At baseline (beginning of academic year) and in 9 months
Program Climate assessed by Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised	Rhode Island Department of Education record review	At 9 months (end of academic year)
Change from Baseline Supervisor Reflective Capacity at 9 months assessed by teacher-report	Reflective Supervision Rating Scale, scores range from 1 to 4 with higher scores indicating greater reflective capacity	At baseline (beginning of academic year) and in 9 months
Change from Baseline Teacher Reflective Functioning at 9 months	Reflective Functioning Questionnaire, scores range from 1 to 7 with higher scores indicating greater reflective functioning	At baseline (beginning of academic year) and in 9 months
Change from Baseline Teacher Well-Being at 9 months	Professional Quality of Life Scale, scores range from 1 to 5 with higher scores indicating greater well-being	At baseline (beginning of academic year) and in 9 months
Change from Baseline Child Academic Functioning as assessed by Cognitive Toybox at 9 months	Rhode Island Department of Education record review	At baseline (beginning of academic year) and in 9 months
Change from Baseline Child Academic Skills at 9 months	Social Competence Scale - Teacher Version, Academic Skills subscale, scores range from 0 to 4 with higher scores indicating greater academic skills	At baseline (beginning of academic year) and in 9 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Bradley Hospital
• Collaborators: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Lindsay P Huffhines, PhD, Bradley Hospital

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): May 18, 2023
• Primary Completion (Estimated): February 28, 2027
• Study Completion (Estimated): February 28, 2027

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 18, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 26, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): May 30, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): September 19, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 16, 2025
• Last Verified: September 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Social-Emotional Development; Reflective Supervision; Reflective Capacity; Early Care and Education
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavior; Social Behavior; Self-Control; Emotional Regulation
• Other Study ID Numbers: K23HD107243 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Final datasets generated from questionnaire, record review, and observational assessments will be available upon reasonable request.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Requests for de-identified datasets will be honored within 30 months following completion of the project or at the time of the publication of manuscripts that present the main aims of the study
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: A public use de-identified dataset that does not include sensitive or potentially identifiable information will be made available upon reasonable request. For datasets that include sensitive or potentially identifiable information, data-use agreements will be put in place with appropriate restrictions prior to the provision of data.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; SAP

Drug and device information, study documents

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