Tuning in to Kids in Norwegian FUS Kindergartens

The proposed project will aim to evaluate the impact of the Tuning in to Kids program for teachers using a randomised controlled research design with 48 kindergartens across Norway (Oslo, Trondheim and Bergen). Kindergartens will be randomised into intervention or 12-month wait list control. Measures will be given to kindergarten leaders, teachers, parents and in a subset of kindergartens children. Intervention kindergartens will receive training in how to be more emotion coaching as well as helping teachers understand and manage their own emotions. Primary outcomes are teachers' responsiveness to children's emotions and the overall classroom functioning/climate. Secondary outcomes are impacts on kindergarten functioning, staff absences/turn over, parents reports of children's emotional, behavioural and social functioning.

The research questions will be does Tuning in to Kids (TIK) for teachers:

1. lead to improved teacher meta-emotion philosophy (beliefs about emotions), teacher emotion awareness/regulation and wellbeing?
2. lead to improved teacher emotion socialisation (decreased emotion dismissiveness and increased emotion coaching) and emotional responsiveness?
3. lead to improvements in the kindergarten social and emotional climate and improved organisational functioning of the kindergarten?
4. lead to improved child emotion vocabulary and social, emotional, behavioural functioning?
5. provide a cost-effective method for improving the functioning of the FUS kindergartens?

TIK for Teachers will aim to alter the teacher and kindergarten functioning which in turn is expected to impact children's emotional competence (emotion vocabulary/regulation) thereby impacting wider aspects of child functioning (behaviour, social functioning). In this trial of Tuning in to Kids in Norwegian FUS kindergartens, a cluster randomised design will be used. Forty-eight kindergartens, (consisting of 880 teachers), will be randomised into intervention or 12-month wait-list control. All kindergartens (intervention and control) will complete measures at baseline and 10-month follow-up (in August 2019 and then June 2020). Once baseline measures have been collected from all kindergartens (intervention and control), those in the intervention condition will receive the TIK intervention (October through to March). Twelve-month follow up measures will be collected in June 2020 and will be the same measures collected at baseline (outlined below) as well as data on intervention implementation (attendance dosage, feasibility, acceptability). Control kindergartens will receive the same measures at the same times as the intervention kindergartens and will receive the intervention after the 12-month waiting period (in autumn 2020).

Tuning in to Kids for Teachers - TIK-T: Intervention

This intervention is professional training for teachers/childcare workers. Key components include:

* Kindergarten leaders/principals and all school workers will receive an initial three hour briefing on the intervention in March 2019;
* Kindergarten leaders/lead pedagogue will attend a two-day (14 hours) professional training in TIK to learn to use emotion coaching with children in December 2019. This will give them skills to support teachers in their application of the ideas in their interactions with children.
* Childcare workers/kindergarten teachers will attend a full day training (seven hours) in how to use emotion coaching and in skills to understand and regulate their emotions January 2020;
* The Kindergarten leaders/education or pedagogue will deliver supervision sessions to assist teachers in implementation of the TIK ideas. This will be two x three hour sessions at monthly intervals (February, March 2020);
* Structured manuals will be used for intervention delivery and fidelity checklists to ensure adherence to the intervention.
* Support materials will be provided in online format/manuals for all teachers.

Measures:

* a structured, validated observation measure of classroom social-emotional environment;
* teacher responses on questionnaires about their meta-emotion philosophy (beliefs about emotions), emotion awareness/regulation, emotion socialisation (emotion dismissiveness and emotion coaching), emotion wellbeing/mental health and perceptions of the functioning of the kindergarten/school;
* kindergarten leader's responses on questionnaires about the kindergarten environment;
* kindergarten organisational data on teacher absences, staff turnover etc to measure overall organisational functioning;
* parents will complete an online questionnaire about their child's emotional language, social/emotional/behavioural functioning and their experience of support/engagement with the kindergarten. The will also complete a brief measure on their emotion socialization.
* a small number of children (for whom parental consent is given) in eight kindergartens will participate in a direct assessment at the kindergarten of the child's emotion knowledge;
* costs of intervention delivery along with expected financial costs/benefits of (improved) organisational functioning (such as costs of staff absences, re-hiring, organisational problems)
* Intervention implementation: information will be collected from teachers/kindergarten leaders about intervention acceptability, feasibility and dosage/attendance.

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

* teachers/kindergarten workers in the eligible kindergartens
* all children

Exclusion Criteria:

* none