Prevention of school dropout through the reduction of disruptive behaviorsand school failure in elementary school

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 p utative mediating variable in the trajectory linking the proximal impact of the prevention program on early disruptiveness and its distal impact on dr opping out of school. The program was implemented during the second and thi rd grades. It included a component aimed at improving social-cognitive skil ls 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 pl acement was, in turn, partially mediated by the program's proximal effect o n children's early disruptiveness. We recommend using intervention studies to test developmental models. (C) 1999 Society for the Study of School Psyc hology. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.