Purpose: Strong and supportive relationships between teachers and their students can be important to academic and social development. Children with significant problem behaviors, though, are less likely to develop close, positive, high quality relationships with their teachers. The purpose of this project is to assess the efficacy of a preschool program called Banking Time with preschoolers most at risk for developing a disruptive behavior disorder and receipt of special education services due to serious emotional disturbance. The intervention is intended to strengthen teachers’ interactions with their students, reduce problem behaviors, and improve the students’ behavioral and social emotional skills.

Project Activities: Teachers will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions: the Banking Time experimental condition; a time-control comparison, or a business as usual condition. Teachers will implement Banking Time in eight week intervals, three times a week, with one student at a time. Three students in each Banking Time classroom will be randomly assigned to receive Banking Time in the fall, winter, or spring. In the time-control comparison group, teachers will be asked to meet with individual children for the same frequency and duration as the Banking Time condition, but the teacher will select the activities. In the second comparison group, students will be provided with "business as usual." Children’s behavioral and social emotional skills will be measured prior to and immediately after intervention as well as at entry into their next academic year.

Products: The products of this project will be published reports on the efficacy of the Banking Time intervention for improving teacher and student relationships and students’ behavioral and social emotional outcomes.

Structured Abstract

Setting: The research project will take place in private, state, and Head Start preschool classrooms in Virginia and North Carolina.

Population: Approximately 500 three and four year olds from over 170 classrooms will participate in this research. The children will be most at risk for developing a disruptive behavior disorder and receipt of special education services due to serious emotional disturbance.

Intervention: Banking Time is a structured intervention targeted to improve teacher-child interactions and the quality of the teacher-child relationship. Banking Time sessions are brief, regular, play-focused and interactive. Teachers will implement Banking Time with the target child three times per week for eight weeks. During each Banking Time session, the teacher and child engage in an activity chosen by the child. The session is led by the child as the teacher watches, listens, and responds. Teachers work weekly with a consultant to support intervention implementation.

Research Design and Methods: Teachers will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions: the Banking Time experimental condition; a time-control comparison, or a business as usual condition. Teachers will implement Banking Time in eight week intervals, three times a week, with one student at a time. Three students in each classroom will be randomly assigned to receive Banking Time in the fall, winter, or spring. Children’s behavioral and social emotional skills will be measured prior to and immediately after the intervention as well as at their entry into the next academic year. Information on the fidelity of intervention implementation will be collected.

Control Condition: Two comparison groups will be part of this research. In the time-control comparison group, teachers will be asked to meet with individual children for the same frequency and duration as the Banking Time condition, but the teacher will select the activities. In the second group, students will be provided with "business as usual." Researchers will document activities of both of these groups so that comparisons with the Banking Time can be made.

Key Measures: Key outcomes of behavior and social emotional skills will be administered including the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory, the Sutter-Eyberg Student Behavior Inventory-Revised, Emotion Regulation Checklist, and Teacher-Child Rating Scale. Data will also be collected on school disciplinary actions, requests for parent-teacher conferences, referrals for participation in behavioral or psycho-educational assessment or special education services, formal diagnosis of a disruptive behavior diagnosis, and use of medication to treat child’s behavior. Finally, the researchers will collect data on teacher-student relationships, teacher practices, and fidelity of implementation.

Data Analytic Strategy: A series of data analysis techniques, including hierarchical linear modeling and regression, will be used to estimate the effect of Banking Time on students’ behavioral and social emotional outcomes, teacher-student relationship, and teacher practices. Additional analyses will be conducted to determine variables that may influence the strength of the relation between the interventions and student outcomes.

Products and Publications

Book chapter

Williford, A.P., and Sanger, C.E. (in press). Student-Teacher Relationships. In R. Weissberg, J. Durlak, and T. Gullotta (Eds.), The Handbook of Social and Emotional Learning. New York: Guilford.

Book chapter, edition specified

Williford, A.P., Carter, L.M., and Pianta, R.C. (2016). Attachment and School Readiness. In J. Cassidy, and P. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research, and Clinical Applications (3rd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.

Journal article, monograph, or newsletter

Carter, L.M., and Williford, A.P. (2014). Exploring the Teacher-Child Relationship: The Role of a Teacher's Attributions for Child Disruptive Behavior. Early Education and Development.

Carter, L.M., Williford, A.P., and LoCasale-Crouch, J. (2014). Reliability and Validity of a Measure of Preschool Teachers' Attributions for Disruptive Behavior. Early Education and Development, 25(7): 949–972. doi:10.1080/10409289.2014.898358

Hatfield, B. E. and Williford, A. P. (2016). Cortisol Patterns for Young Children Displaying Disruptive Behavior: Links to a Teacher-Child, Relationship-Focused Intervention. Prevention Science, 18(1): 40–49. doi:10.1007/s11121–016–0693–9

Sanger, C. E. & Williford, A. P. (2015). Teacher and TA ratings of preschoolers' externalizing behavior: Agreement and associations with observed classroom behavior. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 34(4), 211–222.

Vitiello, V. E., and Williford, A. P. (2016). Relations Between Social Skills and Language and Literacy Outcomes among Disruptive Preschoolers: Task Engagement as a Mediator. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 36: 136–144. doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2015.12.011

Williford, A. P., LoCasale-Crouch, J., Whittaker, J. V., DeCoster, J., Hartz, K. A., Carter, L. M., Wolcott, C. S., and Hatfield, B. E. (2016). Changing Teacher-Child Dyadic Interactions to Improve Preschool Children's Externalizing Behaviors. Child Development: 1–10. doi:10.1111/cdev.12703

Williford, A.P., and Shelton, T.L. (in press). Behavior Management for Preschoolers. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America.

Williford, A.P., Wolcott , C.S., Whittaker, J.E., and Locasale-Crouch, J. (2015). Program and Teacher Characteristics Predicting the Implementation of Banking Time With Preschoolers who Display Disruptive Behaviors. Prevention Science, 16(8): 1054–1063. doi:10.1007/s11121–015–0544–0

Wolcott, C.S., and Williford, A.P. (2015). Teacher and TA Ratings of Preschoolers' Externalizing Behavior: Agreement and Associations With Observed Classroom Behavior. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 34(4): 211–222. doi:10.1177/0271121414546008