پیشگیری از ترک تحصیل مدرسه از طریق کاهش رفتارهای مخل و شکست مدرسه در مدرسه ابتدایی

We report the effects of a preventive intervention program on dropping out of school in a sample of disruptive boys from low socioeconomic status (SES). We tested the role of grade retention/special classroom placement as a putative mediating variable in the trajectory linking the proximal impact of the prevention program on early disruptiveness and its distal impact on dropping out of school. The program was implemented during the second and third grades. It included a component aimed at improving social-cognitive skills at school and a component aimed at improving parental management skills in the home. The results showed that the program had an indirect effect on later school dropout problems through its impact on grade retention/special classroom placement. The reduction of grade retention/special classroom placement was, in turn, partially mediated by the program’s proximal effect on children’s early disruptiveness. We recommend using intervention studies to test developmental models.