Rethinking child behavior: Attribution retraining improves child educators' understanding and response

Abstract

Adults' explanations for child behavior influence their response and, in turn, how child behavior and development progress. Various social-psychological factors (e.g., cognitive belief structures, developmental expectations) help determine the formation of attributions, which are characterized as largely stable. Nonetheless, research demonstrates that attributions can be restructured via attribution retraining (AR). The following study was the first to examine the impact of an AR intervention embedded within training in child development and traumatic stress response. Of particular interest was the malleability and stability of attributions of child behavior, and their contribution to discipline responses among 114 child educators (e.g., teachers, administrators). Post-training, there was a significant decrease in participants' causal attributions and unsupportive intervention preference and a significant increase in trauma-informed attitudes, largely maintained at one-year follow-up, suggesting that this training intervention offers a feasible and scalable method to integrate child development and trauma-informed care to improve perceptions of child behavior.