Preschool-based mother-child emotional preparation program improves emotional connection, behavior regulation in the home and classroom: a randomized controlled trial

IntroductionBased on the theory that increasing emotional connection and reducing emotional stress between mother and child at home will reduce dysregulated behavior in the classroom, we tested a novel family-based school intervention aimed at facilitating mother-child emotional connection. This question has gained great importance following the COVID-19 pandemic, as child mental health has been declared a national emergency.MethodsSubjects were randomized into two groups; one (Control: n = 32) receiving the standard curriculum in a large community-based preschool education program, and another (MCEP) receiving the standard curriculum plus the Mother Child Emotional Preparation Program (MCEP: n = 30). Two to eight MCEP mother-child pairs participated in eight elective weekly 2-h group sessions over a 16-week period. During the 2-h sessions, the pairs were engaged in face to face calming sessions. At 6 months post-enrollment, we assessed mother-child emotional connection on the Welch Emotional Connection Screen (WECS). In addition, mothers and teachers completed validated questionnaires and instruments.ResultsWe found that the percentage of MCEP mother-child pairs who became emotionally connected at 6 months was five-fold higher than Control pairs (47.4%, vs. 8.3% p = 0.004, effect size = 0.44). Also at six months, MCEP children had fewer behavioral symptoms (p = 0.024)) (effect size >0.5); fewer autism symptoms (p = 0.048) (effect size = 0.53); fewer emotional symptoms (p = 0.01) (effect size >0.76); better personal, social skills (p = 0.045) (effect size = 0.51); better executive function (p = 0.032) (effect size = 0.59). Importantly, teachers reported MCEP children showed more improved behavior in the classroom, compared to controls.DiscussionThis trial was retrospectively registered in the clinicaltrial.gov registry (NCT02970565) on April 9, 2019.