Integrating a Self-Regulation Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention in the Classroom

Abstract This article seeks to demonstrate the effectiveness of an age-specific, manualized self-regulation treatment approach, Self-Regulation Training System (SRTS). SRTS interventions were implemented through waitlist control design over a span of two months to students in fourth grade classes from eight different elementary schools in the Midwestern United States (N = 373). The sample comprised of 52% boys, with an average age of 9.25 (SD = 0.45). A significant increase in average teacher-reported self-regulation scores was observed in both waitlist and experimental groups after the intervention was administered. In addition, students’ problem behaviors increased in the waitlist group when students had not received the intervention and remained stable once students experienced the intervention in both the experimental and waitlist conditions. Overall, the results provide initial evidence that the classroom wide interventions like the SRTS may be helpful in promoting self-regulation skills in children. Interventions such as the SRTS provide a feasible way for schools to promote self-regulation skills and influence problem behaviors in the classroom.