Zippy's Friends

Clarke, A. M., Bunting, B., & Barry, M. M. (2014). Evaluating the implementation of a school-based emotional well-being programme: A cluster randomized controlled trial of Zippy’s Friends for children in disadvantaged primary schools. Health Education Research, 29(5), 786–798.

Available at
https://academic.oup.com/her/article/29/5/786/2829551/Evaluating-the-implementation-of-a-school-based

Study design and sample

This was a cluster RCT conducted in Ireland, involving a sample of 766 children (aged seven to eight) from disadvantaged schools. Schools were recruited from target areas where support could be provided by health promotion specialists in piloting the programme.

Schools were randomly assigned to one of three arms:

1. Intervention Group type I (15 schools; 18 classes; 276 children)
2. Intervention Group type II (15 schools; 18 classes; 277 children)
3. Control Groups (14 schools; 18 classes; 222 children).

Teachers in intervention group type one were asked to implement the programme with fidelity as faithfully as possible. Teachers in intervention group type two were not required to implement the programme with strict levels of fidelity. The control group did not receive Zippy’s Friends, however, the Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) curriculum, which is mandatory in primary schools in Ireland, was also available to all schools.

Measures

Two measures were used to evaluate the impact of the intervention. The Emotional Literacy Checklist was used to measure emotional literacy. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was used to assess children’s emotional and behavioural functioning. Both measures have established properties in terms of reliability and validity.

Teachers completed measures for both groups at three time points: before the intervention (T1); immediately after the intervention (T2); and at 12-month follow-up (T3). Teachers were therefore responsible for implementing the intervention as well as completing the various measures.

Findings

On the Children’s Emotional Literacy Checklist findings at post-test indicated significant direct effects on the subscales of self-awareness (p < 0.001); self-regulation (p &al; 0.01); motivation (p < 0.001); and Social Skills (p < 0.001). There were no significant findings for the subscale of empathy. At 12-month follow-up findings indicated significant indirect effects on the subscales for self-awareness (p < 0.01); self-regulation (p < 0.05); motivation (p < 0.01); and social skills (p < 0.01). There were again no significant findings for empathy at either post-test or follow-up.

On the SDQ findings at post-test and 12-month follow-up indicated no significant effects on the subscales of emotional symptoms; hyperactivity; peer relationship problems; or pro-social behaviour. With regards to the subscale of conduct problems, children in the control group decreased significantly in comparison to the treatment group (p < 0.05). This effect was not maintained at the 12-month follow-up.

Holen, S., Waaktaar, T., Lervåg, A., & Ystgaard, M. (2012). The effectiveness of a universal school-based programme on coping and mental health: A randomised, controlled study of Zippy’s Friends. Educational Psychology, 32(5), 657–677.

Available at
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01443410.2012.686152

Study design and sample

This was a matched-pair cluster RCT conducted in Norway. It involved 1,483 children aged seven to eight (mean = 7.3; SD = 0.32), from 91 second grade classes in 35 schools. Almost half (49.3%) of the sample was female, and 75.9% of the children lived with both parents.

The schools were matched in pairs using available variables considered important for the outcome:

• School socioeconomic profile (provided by the local authorities)
• Percentage of special teaching
• Ethnic minority backgrounds (data on relevant matching variables were provided by Norwegian School Statistics)

Schools from each pair were then randomly assigned to the control or intervention group. 18 schools (745 children from 47 classes) were assigned to the intervention group, while 17 schools (738 children from 44 classes) were assigned to the control group.

Measures

Several measures were used to measure the impact of the programme on child outcomes:

Measure 1: Kidcope Questionnaire (Parent version) was used to assess children’s coping strategies. The study made use of a Norwegian (Bokmål) version of Kidcope, which was translated and back-translated by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Parents used an adapted adolescent version of the measure.

Measure 2: Kidcope Questionnaire (Child version) was used to self-assess coping strategies. Many of the children were not yet able to read and the questionnaire therefore only contained pictures, signs, and numbers. Teachers helped the children to complete the questionnaire. The authors indicated that they were not aware of this format having been tested in any previous studies.

Measure 3: Extended Norwegian version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was completed by both parents and teachers, and was used to assess mental health.

Measures were completed at two points, immediately before the start of the intervention (T1) and immediately after its completion (T2).

Findings

Findings indicated no significant impacts for the parent report on the SDQ. On the teacher’s report (SDQ) there was a positive finding only for impact (d = –.146; p < .05). The impact score was part of the SDQ scale, and was a continuous measure based on whether the respondent thought the child had any problems, and if so, ratings of the chronicity, distress, social impairment, and burden to others were included.

On the Kidcope, findings indicated improved oppositional behaviour (d = –.380; p < .01) on the child report; and increased active strategies (d = .186; p < .01) on the parent report.

Holen, S., Waaktaar, T., Lervåg, A., & Ystgaard, M. (2012). Implementing a universal stress management program for young school children: Are there classroom climate or academic effects? Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 57(4), 420–444.

Available at
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00313831.2012.656320

This paper describes additional outcomes from study 2a described above.  In this case:

Measures

Measure 1: The FEESS 1-2 (Teacher version) was used to measure emotional and social school experiences. This is a German scale that includes two questionnaires:

1. SIKS – which measures social integration, classroom climate, and self-concept of school readiness/academic skills
2. SALGA – which measures school attitude, effort, joy of learning, and feelings of being accepted.

Only the SIKS questionnaire was used in this study.

Measure 2: The FEESS 1-2 (Child version) was used to self-assess emotional and social school experiences.

Findings

With regards to the teacher report on the FEESS 1-2 measure, findings indicated a significant reduction in bullying (d = .550; p < .01); improved social climate (d = .614; p < .01); improved social integration (d = .325; p < .01); and improved academic skills (d = .415; p < .01).

Children’s assessments did not indicate any significant findings.

Sloan, S., Gildea, A., Miller, S., Thurston., A.2018. Zippy’s Friends Evaluation report and executive summary. Queens University Belfast.

Available at
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/public/files/Projects/Evaluation_Reports/Zippys_Friends.pdf

Study design and sample

The third study is a cluster RCT.

This study involved random assignment of schools to an Intervention group (Zippy’s Friends) and a control group (treatment as usual).

This study was conducted in the United Kingdom, with a sample of children in the intervention group who were 50% male. 17% of the intervnetion children were eligible for free school meals (FSM), and 21% spoke English as an additional language. In the control group, 52% of the children were male, 13% were eligible for FSM, 16% spoke English as an additional language.

Measures

• Reading was measured using the Hodder Group Reading Test (Self-report).
• Emotional self-regulation was measured using the Children’s Anger Management Scale (Self-report).
• Self-regulated learning was measured using the attention/persistence and emotional control subscales of the Learning Behaviour Scale (Teacher report).
• Social Skills was measured using the social skills subscale of the Social Skills Information System (Pupil report).

Findings

This study identified statistically significant positive impact on a child outcome.

This includes self-regulated learning.

The conclusions that can be drawn from this study are limited by methodological issues pertaining to a lack of clarity around whether the treatment and control group have continued to be equivalent on baseline characteristics after attrition, and measurement of self-regulated learning (teacher report) not being blind to group assignment, hence why a higher rating is not achieved.