The Incredible Years® Teacher Classroom Management programme and its impact on teachers’ professional self-efficacy, work related stress and general well-being: results from the STARS randomised controlled trial

Abstract

Background Teaching is a stressful occupation with poor retention. The Incredible Years® Teacher Classroom Management (TCM) programme is a training program that past research has demonstrated may be an effective intervention for children’s mental health, but little research has explored any impacts there may be on the teachers’ own professional confidence and mental health. Aims In this paper we evaluate whether TCM may lead to changes in teachers’ wellbeing, namely a reduction in burnout and an improvement in self-efficacy and mental health. Sample Eighty schools across the South West of England were recruited between September 2012 and September 2014. Headteachers were asked to nominate one class teacher to take part. Methods Eighty teachers were randomised to either attend a TCM course (intervention) or not (control). TCM was delivered to groups of up to twelve teachers in six whole-day workshops that were evenly spread between October and April. At baseline and nine months follow-up we measured teachers’ mental health using the Everyday Feelings Questionnaire (EFQ), burnout using the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS) and self-efficacy using the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale-Short (TSES-Short). Results Using linear regression models there was little evidence of differences at follow-up between the intervention and control teachers on the outcomes (the smallest p-value was 0.09). Conclusions Our findings did not replicate previous research that TCM improved teachers’ sense of efficacy. However, there were limitations with this study including low sample size.