Rogaland College: Training of cognitive, emotional and prosocial skills

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Rogaland College Training of cognitive,
emotional and prosocial skills

• Continued education course over two years
• 60 credits
• Rogaland College, Southwest Norway
• Permanent lecturers
• Knut Gundersen, Rogaland College (project leader)
• Frode Svartdal, Univ. of Tromsø (part time)
• Collaboration
• Ungdomsalternativet Oasen, Sweden Glenne
  senter, Norway Norwegian and international
  experts

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University of Tromsø
Oslo
Rogaland College
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Rogaland College Training of cognitive,
emotional and pro-social skills

• Students
• Teachers
• Social educators
• At least 2 years professional experience after
  education

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Rogaland College Training of cognitive,
emotional and prosocial skills

• General framework of the program
• 8 weeks theoretical teaching combined with skills
  training.
• 2 weeks per term, 8 terms
• 120 hours practice including leading 24 hours of
  ART-training.
• Work assignments between the gatherings
• Evaluation of their program using CBCL and other
  assessment-tools
• Article

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First gatheringTheoretical framework

• Psychological skills training
• Behavior problems
• Different skills training programs
• Social psychology
• Social learning theory
• Ethics
• Law
• Behavior modification (2 days)

Work assignment
A short essay about one of the subjects above
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Second gathering ART 1. Social skills and Anger
control

• Emphasis on roleplaying
• 1 trainer per 10 students

Home assignments
16 sessions training in social skills training
and anger control trainingAt least 8 sessions
as main trainertraining with co-workers,
collegestudents or pupils with behavior problems
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Third GatheringART 2 - Moral Reasoning Training)

Work assignment
8 sessions with Moral Reasoning Training
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Fourth gatheringResearch Methodology

• Different scientific methods
• Acquisition of client data /
• Different charting tools
• CBCL / CADBI / ART-assessment instruments

Practice with assessment
24 sessions with ART Assessment before and after
intervention
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Fifth and Sixth GatheringsPrograms addressing
behavioral problems

• Webster-Stratton
• PMT (Patterson)
• MST
• Olweus program against bullying

Practice with assessment ctd.
24 sessions with ART Assessment before and after
intervention
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Seventh GatheringFurther studies

• Expanded ART (Sara Salmon)
• Generalization
• Working with families

Work assignment
Working with the article
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Eight GatheringExaminations

• Examination (6 hours)
• Presentation of articles
• Seminar

Syllabus
3500 pages. 2500 pages determined by the
College, 1000 pages selected by the student
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David Kilba
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luke moynahan
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(No Transcript)
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ART Program, Rogaland College, NorwayEvaluation
of ART intervention effect

• Knut Gundersen
• Rogaland College
• Frode Svartdal
• University of Tromso / Rogaland College

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Evaluation of ART intervention

• An obligatory requirement of the course involves
  planning and implementation of an ART
  intervention program
• ART intervention 24 sessions
• Question here Is there a measurable effect of
  this ART intervention?

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Evaluation of ART intervention

• ART Trainers
• 12 groups of students (normally 2 students per
  group, ART trainer co-trainer)
• All students had gt 20 hours of practice as ART
  trainers before intervention
• Clients
• Groups of 3-6 youths
• Recruited primarily from the students workplace
• Most were pupils attending local schools - 3
  projects from institutions
• Screening All clients were assessed with a
  battery of checklists to assure that members of
  groups had different levels of social skills /
  behavioral problems

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Evaluation of ART intervention

• Randomized control group design
• Each student group prepared two comparable client
  groups
• Random allocation to condition
• One group ? ART other group ? comparison group
• Thus
• ART group 24 hrs ART intervention
• Comparison group standard program as defined and
  delivered by the actual school/institution

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Evaluation of ART intervention

• We intended to establish comparable groups both
  in number and social problems, but
• ART group 48 youths, Comparison group 17 youths
  
• For practical reasons, some projects could not
  include comparison group

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Evaluation of ART intervention

• Contents of the 24 sessions
• Anger control training
• Skillstreaming (Social skills training)
• Moral reasoning training
• At least 4 sessions from each component
• Most students had 4-6 sessions with moral
  reasoning (i.e., less emphasis on moral reasoning)

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Evaluation of ART intervention

• Formalities
• Project approved by regional ethics committee
• Extensive information to parents, teachers
  provided in advance of the intervention

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Evaluation of ART intervention

• Measurement of effect
• Comprehensive test battery administrated before
  and after intervention
• Test battery
• General CBCL (Child Behavior Check List)
• Social skills SSRS (Social Skills Rating
  System Gresham Elliott)
• Moral thinking HIT (How I Think Gibbs)
• Problem behavior CADBI (Child and Adolescent
  Disruptive Behavior Inventory Burns)
• Problem behavior Self report questionnaire
  (custom)

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Evaluation of ART intervention

• Test battery
• Norwegian versions
• Administration Careful instructions internet
  support
• Scoring Done by the students (automated scoring
  - Excel)
• Data analysis Input from Excel ? Statististics
  program

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HIT scoring form
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Evaluation of ART intervention

• Overview of design
• ART PRE-TEST ART TEST
• Comp. PRE-TEST - TEST

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Evaluation of ART intervention

• How did we measure effect?
• Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
• Pre-test vs. test within groups (1)
• Between groups ART vs. comparison after
  treatment (2)
• Pre-test ART Test
• Pre-test - Test

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1
2
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Evaluation of ART intervention Special issues

• Several independent student ART projects
  contributed with data
• Standardization of treatment and measurement
  procedures important
• Joint, simultaneous training of students
• Continuing intranet information made available to
  student researchers, mail support, intranet based
  discussion group

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Evaluation of ART intervention Special issues

• Relatively large variation between projects
• Diversity of clients
• E.g., age, diagnosis, competence
• Project support
• Some projects had optimal support, others were
  difficult to implement because of lack of support
  from school, parents, etc.
• Group size and participants with pro-social
  skills
• Some projects had small groups, some had
  difficulties creating optimal conditions

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Evaluation of ART intervention Special issues

• Student trainers had limited experience with ART
  interventions involving behavior problems
• Relatively low treatment effect must be expected
• Relatively high degree of support guidance
  necessary

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Evaluation of ART intervention Special issues

• Very high workload on students
• Extensive planning, recruitment of clients, etc.
• 24 ART sessions
• Administration of test battery PRE and POST
• Possible imbalance between treatment and
  measurement (too much measurement?)

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Evaluation of ART intervention Predictions

• The 24 session treatment programs emphasized
  training of social skills reduction of problem
  behavior less emphasis on moral thinking
• Thus
• Social skills (measured by SSRS) should improve
• Problem behavior (measured by CADBI) should
  reduce
• Moral thinking (measured by HIT) should not
  change much
• Overall problems (measured by CBCL) should reduce

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Evaluation of ART intervention Results
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Evaluation of ART intervention

• Thus
• 7 of 9 instruments indicated significant
  improvement
• 1 of 9 tests indicated no effect, but this was
  predicted
• I.e., no change in HIT scores (moral reasoning),
  but the ART programs did not emphasize moral
  training
• Overall Relatively small, but significant effect
  of ART

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Evaluation of ART intervention

• Why small effect?
• Students had limited practical ART experience
• Too short an intervention More than 24 sessions
  indicated
• Many of the students did not know the youths
  before training. Time is needed to establish
  optimal group relations
• Too homogeneous groups
• Few participants without behavioral problems in
  the groups
• Lack of ART environment outside classroom
• Too much assessment assessment procedures may
  have interfered with intervention

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Evaluation of ART intervention

• Problem
• Difficult to separate ART from control groups
  when both are located at the same school or
  institution
• Diffusion of manipulation ART manipulation
  spreads to both groups

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Evaluation of ART intervention

• Conclusions
• ART seems to have a positive effect, even if it
  is implemented by therapists with limited
  experience and is restricted to only 24 sessions
• Better effect should be expected when
• trainers have increased experience
• more than 24 sessions are given
• trainers are more familiar with the youths
• more participants without behavior problems
• improved support of ART programs outside
  classroom
• assessment procedures should be restricted to
  fewer instruments

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Evaluation of ART intervention

• More information
• www.sv.uit.no/seksjon/psyk/res_ART.html
• Paper by Gundersen Svartdal (in preparation)