Behavioral and Socioemotional Outcomes of the Legacy for Children™ Randomized Control Trial to Promote Healthy Development of Children Living in Poverty, 4 to 6 Years Postintervention.
Caroline M Barry, Lara R Robinson, Jennifer W Kaminski and 3 others
PMID 33941737WHAT IT FOUND
Years later, children of mothers assigned to Legacy had fewer parent-reported externalizing problems and problems with adaptive skills and higher empathy scores in Los Angeles, but in Miami no differences were detected.
Key findings
01In Los Angeles at third grade, fewer mothers assigned to Legacy reported externalizing problems (11.9% vs 26.5%) and risk for adaptive skills problems (11.9% vs 27.9%) among their children.
02In Los Angeles, Legacy children scored 1.30 units higher on the Children's Empathy Questionnaire, which has possible scores from 11 to 33.
03In Miami, no significant differences were found between intervention and comparison children on behavioral or emotional outcomes at third grade.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
By third grade, 37% of original participants in Los Angeles and 44% in Miami were missing, so the results apply only to the 364 dyads who completed at least one third-grade behavioral or socioemotional measure. The intervention was delivered in English, and generalizability is limited to families with mothers comfortable participating in English, even though 34% of mothers in Miami and 51% in Los Angeles reported speaking another language primarily at home. Los Angeles and Miami differed in curriculum, duration, and sample characteristics, and these differences are confounded, so site-specific results cannot be separated cleanly from implementation or background disadvantage. Intention-to-treat analyses did not account for intervention participation or dropout, and diminished sample size with attrition may have affected statistical power. Third-grade measures differed from earlier childhood measures, so they may not capture the same socioemotional or behavioral constructs as before.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest. The article does not name a study funder.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that Legacy improves behavior or empathy for all children living in poverty. The benefits were seen only in Los Angeles; Miami showed no significant differences, and the sites differed in curriculum, duration, and sample characteristics.