Research Findings: Few studies address the contextual conditions for preschool staff in supporting children in preschool, especially in classrooms with high proportions of early second language learners (L2-learners). The aim of the study was to describe preschool staff’s support of children’s engagement in units with high proportions of L2-learners. In an exploratory mixed-methods approach, eleven interviews (11 units and 27 staff) were conducted, analyzed through content analysis. For the observations, 121 preschool staff (31 units) were added, and 594 children were observed (42 classrooms), analyzed through T-tests to investigate staff’s contextual differences in units with high proportions (>80%) of L2-learners (L2-groups) and child groups with high proportions (>80%) of L1-learners. Content analysis revealed a main theme of a commitment to establish relationships with the children while managing cultural values and norms. In interacting with children individually, the staff wanted to be close to the children and acknowledging them. In these aspects, no differences were found between staff between groups. Differences occurred in interaction with children in groups. Staff in L2-groups struggled with routines, mediating values and encouraging children learning from each other. Policy/practice: Staff in L2-groups need further encouragement from the organization to manage the needs of children in L2-groups without straining their commitments.

Introduction: Identifying stressors in adolescents’ everyday life may preventfuture mental health problems and could be used to promote wellbeing inschool. To be able to identify possible coping tools in a school setting, the aimof this study is to conceptualize adolescents’ experiences of everyday stressors.

Method: Data was collected among 45 girls and 20 boys (aged 13–15)representing seven schools in Sweden. Participants were told to discusseveryday stressors in smaller groups and document important words/concepts.The documented notes were analyzed using a manifest linking processconnected to domains and codes found in the International Classification ofFunctioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) framework, following established linkingrules.

Results: A total of 549 documented words/concepts connected to adolescents’experiences of daily stressors were collected and revealed stressor related tothe ICF domains activities and participation (42.8%), body functions (30.1%) andenvironmental factors (27%). Regarding activities and participation, adolescentsin the study perceived demands relating to school and social life as moststressful. The demands were put on them by themselves, parents, school,and society and were combined with a lack of time to handle the demands.Further, stressors related to how they are perceived by others and comparisonswith peers were stressors connected to body functions. Stressors relating toenvironmental factors included derogatory attitudes and a lack of support, fromparents and school as well as from peers.

Discussion: The results are discussed in terms of take-aways for school’s healthpromotive work and potential coping tools for students.

Based on bioecological systems theory, engagement is the mechanism for children's learning and development. However, children with hyperactive behavior tend to be less engaged in early childhood education and care (ECEC), which might negatively influence their learning and development. On the other hand, social interaction might support children with hyperactive behavior staying engaged in these activities. The current study investigates whether the association between teacher responsiveness, positive peer-to-child interaction (i.e., the quality of peer interaction) and children's hyperactive behavior and engagement levels are transactional. Two hundred and three children aged 1 to 5 in Swedish preschool settings were followed. Data was collected at three points in time between 2012 and 2014. This data was then analyzed to identify associations and how they changed over time. Transactional paths were found between children's levels of core engagement, teacher responsiveness, and the quality of positive peer-to-child interaction. Children's core engagement increases the probability of better quality positive peer-to-child interaction and teacher responsiveness, increasing core engagement over time. Teacher responsiveness and the quality of positive peer-to-child interaction are predictors of reduced hyperactive behavior over time. Meanwhile, children's hyperactive behavior does not significantly influence these two types of social interaction, that is, decreased hyperactivity may not improve social interaction to the same extent as increased engagement. The findings are discussed in relation to how special support for children with hyperactive behavior can be designed, with a focus on increasing core engagement in preschool settings.

Recent research indicates that there is uncertainty among children as well as among adults of where to draw the line between everyday stressors and mental health problems that could indicate a need for a common terminology and language regarding mental health (Wickström & Lindholm, 2020; Hellström & Beckman, 2021). The increased prevalence rates of self-reported mental health problems such as bad mood, difficulty sleeping, headaches or stomachache among youth shows a worrying trend in Sweden as well as internationally (Hagquist et al., 2019; Potrebny et al., 2017). At the same time, mild symptoms of mental health problems can be relatively common and be an expression of everyday challenges (Hellström & Beckman, 2021; Wickström & Lindholm, 2020). This contradictory trend is confirmed in the largescale cross-national survey Health Behavior in School-Aged Children, showing reports of very good health and quality of life among young people in Sweden as well as an increase in self-reported mental health problems (Public Health Agency of Sweden, 2018).

Adolescence is a period that involve many changes in different areas such as increasing academic demands and academic competition, a decrease in teacher-student relationship closeness or school safety, rearrangement of relationships with parents and peers including an increase in social comparison, identity issues, as well as thoughts about the future (Bremberg, 2015; Brown, 2009; Tetzner et al., 2017). In addition, the increased emphasis on high-stakes testing, assessment and grading due to recent school reforms in Sweden have shown potentially negative effects on Swedish pupil’s health (Högberg et al., 2021). There is a need to identify what causes stress in the everyday life of adolescents as they could potentially develop into mental health problems (ref). Studies show that when adolescents and young adults put it into their own words, the most pronounced everyday stressors include academic failures, relationship problems, negative self-evaluations through social comparisons, and other performance-oriented tasks (Gustafsson et al., 2010; Hellström & Beckman, 2021).

To be able to design interventions to decrease mental health problems and increase mental wellbeing for youth a common language is needed. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) provides a conceptual framework and terminology for describing health and functioning in everyday life and can serve as a common framework for developing comparable concepts (WHO, 2001). According to ICF, participation is defined as involvement in life situations promoting health and wellbeing (WHO, 2001). The ICF defines components of health included as domains described from the perspectives of the body, the individual and society. Developing a common language will make it easier to interact, discuss and plan health interventions based on young people’s perceptions (Adolfsson et al., 2018; Augustine et al., 2021; Klang Ibragimova et al., 2011; WHO, 2007). The current study investigates how youth explain stressors in their everyday life that could be conceptualized as everyday challenges and possibly symptoms of mental health problems.  Hence, the aim of this study is to conceptualize adolescents’ experiences of everyday stressors, using the ICF as an analytic tool.MethodThis study is a part of a wider project aiming to test and evaluate an intervention to enhance mental wellbeing among school students using an experience-based co-design. The sample includes 65 adolescents (45 girls and 20 boys) in grades 7–9 at seven schools in southern Sweden. Data collection took place during the autumn of 2020. The youth were identified through a purposive sampling procedure, by a gatekeeper assigned by the principal at each school, with the intention of obtaining a wide distribution of experiences to gain transferability of the results. At each school, eight to twelve participants were included. The participants were told to discuss perceived everyday stressors in pairs/smaller groups and documented words from the discussion on post-it notes. The documented words constitute the empirical data in this study. A data analysis with both manifest and latent elements, inspired by a deductive reasoning approach has been adopted. We have aimed to stay close to the text, describe what the adolescents actually say and describe the visible and obvious in the text. To make the manifest linking processes systematic and consistent, the process of coding the documented words/concepts to ICF codes (e.g., “Handling stress and other psychological demands”, “Global psychological functions” and “Emotional functions”) followed established linking rules based on the ICF (Cieza et al., 2005). To ensure that the latent interpretation could lean on a multidisciplinary background knowledge about child functioning, all three authors with different professional backgrounds conducted individual coding (Fayed et al., 2012). In cases were the authors’ linking processes resulted in different ICF codes, a latent procedure with interpretation of the underlying meaning of the content on the post-it notes were conducted by two of the authors (LH and MS). The meaning of the content on each post-it note were thoroughly discussed until consensus was achieved. 39 number of linkages were discussed jointly by the two researchers in relation to the coding scheme. When consensus was obtained, the exact agreement was 94 percentage inter-coder agreement on the 2nd ICF-level. The study was approved by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority (reg.no. 2019-06430 / 2020-04-07).Expected OutcomesThe findings raise awareness about the concept of everyday stressors among adolescents. The aspects of everyday life that adolescents find challenging and stressful can be conceptualized and guide conversations with and about young people and guide supportive actions. The adolescence in this study expressed high psychological demands in combination with a lack of support, mainly from parents, and a lack of resources, mainly time restraints as great challenges. These demands can most often be related to performing well in school or in social contexts. Demands and their effect on wellbeing are essential aspects in the lives of young people when it comes to everyday stressors that needs to be considered in everyday conversations. For parents, school personnel or other adults this could mean talking to adolescents and young people about overwhelming demands and help them sort out what demands they can influence and what demands are hard for them to tackle alone. Here, the relation between demand and control may be a useful theoretical framework and efforts to strengthen a sense of coherence could be a useful coping strategy providing adolescents and young people with a greater sense of control. In addition to demands, how they are perceived by others and how they compare to others are other sources of stress among the adolescents. Social comparisons can function as tools for self-evaluation and self-enhancement in young people’s identity development. However, when these comparisons become stressful and potentially harmful, parents, school personnel or other adults can talk to young people about alternative strategies for identity development. Based on the results in this study in combination with previous research showing a lack of knowledge surrounding mental health, examples of relevant theoretical frameworks to enhance adults’ and young people’s mental health literacy could be demand/control model, sense of coherence and social comparison theory.References 

Adolfsson, M., Sjöman, M., & Björck-Åkesson, E. (2018). ICF-CY as a framework for understanding child engagement in preschool. Frontiers in Education, 3, 36. Cieza, A., Geyh, S., Chatterji, S., Kostanjsek, N., Ustun, B., & Stucki, G. (2005). ICF linking rules: an update based on lessons learned. J rehabil med, 37(4), 212-218. Fayed, N., Cieza, A., & Bickenbach, J. (2012). Illustrating child-specific linking issues using the Child Health Questionnaire. American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, 91(13), S189-S198. Gustafsson, J.-E., Allodi Westling, M., Alin Åkerman, B., Eriksson, C., Eriksson, L., Fischbein, S., Granlund, M., Gustafsson, P., Ljungdahl, S., & Ogden, T. (2010). School, learning and mental health: A systematic review. Stockholm: Kungl. Vetenskapsakademien. Hagquist, C., Due, P., Torsheim, T., & Välimaa, R. (2019). Cross-country comparisons of trends in adolescent psychosomatic symptoms–a Rasch analysis of HBSC data from four Nordic countries. Health and quality of life outcomes, 17(1), 1-13. Hellström, L., & Beckman, L. (2021). Life Challenges and Barriers to Help Seeking: Adolescents’ and Young Adults’ Voices of Mental Health. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(24), 13101. Högberg, B., Lindgren, J., Johansson, K., Strandh, M., & Petersen, S. (2021). Consequences of school grading systems on adolescent health: evidence from a Swedish school reform. Journal of education policy, 36(1), 84-106. Klang Ibragimova, N., Pless, M., Adolfsson, M., Granlund, M., & Björck-Åkesson, E. (2011). Using content analysis to link texts on assessment and intervention to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health-version for Children and Youth (ICF-CY). Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 43(8), 728-733. Potrebny, T., Wiium, N., & Lundegård, M. M.-I. (2017). Temporal trends in adolescents’ self-reported psychosomatic health complaints from 1980-2016: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLOS one, 12(11), e0188374. Public Health Agency of Sweden, (2018). Skolbarns hälsovanor i Sverige 2017/18 [The Public Health Agency. Health Behaviour in School-aged Children, Swedish report 2017/18]. Tetzner, J., Becker, M., & Maaz, K. (2017). Development in multiple areas of life in adolescence: Interrelations between academic achievement, perceived peer acceptance, and self-esteem. International journal of behavioral development, 41(6), 704-713. WHO. (2001). International Classification of Functioning, DIsability and Health. W. H. Organization. WHO. (2007). International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health for Children and Youth (ICF-CY). W. H. Organization. Wickström, A., & Lindholm, S. K. (2020). Young people’s perspectives on the symptoms asked for in the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children survey. Childhood, 27(4), 450-467.

Den här boken handlar om förskolan som lärmiljö för alla barn och i synnerhet för barn i behov av särskilt stöd. Syftet är att belysa vikten av att upptäcka barn som behöver stöd tidigt, och hur olika insatser kan planeras och organiseras för att gynna delaktighet, engagemang och lärande för alla barn i förskolan. Den bygger på svensk och internationell forskning och fyller ett tomrum avseende kunskap kring barn i behov av särskilt stöd i förskolan och deras aktiva engagemang i förskolans vardag. Boken är indelad i tre delar: 

• Förutsättningar för barns delaktighet och engagemang i förskolan.

• Att skapa en inkluderande lärmiljö i förskolan.

• Tidig intervention och samverkan runt barn i behov av särskilt stöd.

Förskollärare och annan personal i förskolan, specialpedagoger och andra som arbetar med tidigt stöd till barn i förskolan har nytta av boken i sitt arbete liksom lärare och studenter i förskollärarutbildningen. Den är också av intresse för skoladministratörer, politiker och andra som är intresserade av förskolan som lärmiljö för alla barn. 

Den här boken handlar om förskolan som lärmiljö för alla barn och i synnerhet för barn i behov av särskilt stöd. Syftet är att belysa vikten av att upptäcka barn som behöver stöd tidigt, och hur olika insatser kan planeras och organiseras för att gynna delaktighet, engagemang och lärande för alla barn i förskolan. Den bygger på svensk och internationell forskning och fyller ett tomrum avseende kunskap kring barn i behov av särskilt stöd i förskolan och deras aktiva engagemang i förskolans vardag. Boken är indelad i tre delar: 

• Förutsättningar för barns delaktighet och engagemang i förskolan.

• Att skapa en inkluderande lärmiljö i förskolan.

• Tidig intervention och samverkan runt barn i behov av särskilt stöd.

Förskollärare och annan personal i förskolan, specialpedagoger och andra som arbetar med tidigt stöd till barn i förskolan har nytta av boken i sitt arbete liksom lärare och studenter i förskollärarutbildningen. Den är också av intresse för skoladministratörer, politiker och andra som är intresserade av förskolan som lärmiljö för alla barn. 

How preschool teachers and children spend their time in preschool sets the stage for child engagement and learning. To describe characteristics of environments and activities and to compare child engagement in indoor and outdoor free play, systematic observations of children and teachers were performed in 78 Swedish preschool units. Results showed that indoor and outdoor free play were the main activity settings. Children interacted as much with other children as with teachers. The content focus was dominated by non-pretend play, construction, art and music, followed by pretend play and academic contents. Child engagement was significantly higher in free play indoors compared to outdoors. Teachers engaged in varied tasks, but their central task was managing. Teachers were typically in proximity to small groups of children, or by themselves, and mostly talked to or listened to a single child. Findings are discussed in relation to the preschool curriculum and future research needs.

Although children’s engagement in preschool is vital for executive functioning (EF) and learning, children with a neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD) have difficulty maintaining their engagement, which negatively influences learning. Lack of engagement is partly explained by delay in EF and partly by contextual factors. The present systematic review provides the preliminary result of how early interventions in preschool settings improve engagement and EF for children with NDD. The interventions include naturalistic teaching strategies. The educators set up the environment to increase learning opportunities, take advantage of naturally occurring events and activities, and use naturally occurring antecedents in early childhood education. We present the outcomes of this review and its effectiveness of interventions in maintaining child engagement. 

Preschool staffs' responsiveness affects children’s behaviour, their difficulties, and engagement in the preschool context, but children’s behaviour and characteristics also affect staff responsiveness. Early second language learners (L2-learners) have been shown to have more problems with behaviour and emotions and lower engagement in preschool. Being engaged in preschool activities predicts future academic performance, attitude towards school and well-being in the short and long term, and can be promoted by the preschool staff. Knowledge of which factors support engagement in preschool for L2-learners can help prevent, in the early years, negative pathways based on low engagement and problems with behaviour and emotions. This cross-sectional study used data from a longitudinal study to investigate the relationship between child engagement and staff responsiveness as well as how child age, child problems with behaviour and emotions, child group size, and the child:staff ratio impact child engagement and staff responsiveness. The study also investigated whether these relations differ between L2-learners and children learning Swedish as their first language (L1-learners). Preschool staff (N = 611) reported through questionnaires on engagement, age, problems with behaviour and emotions and emotional symptoms of 832 children aged 13–71 months, as well as on staffing and staff responsiveness. With a path analysis extended by multi-group analysis, we found two models suggesting that age, problems with behaviour and emotions and preschool staff responsiveness influence child engagement, irrespective of background. The study also found that child engagement significantly influenced staff responsiveness. The multi-group analysis only weakly supported the hypothesis that the child’s age affects staff responsiveness more strongly for L2-learners. The results indicate that individual children and child groups themselves can affect the responsiveness of their staff, and that children with low engagement risk being neglected. L2-learners are at increased risk since they tend to display lower engagement and more behaviour problems in preschool in general. If not attended to early, the lower engagement already apparent among L2-learners in preschool can create stable patterns of low engagement and problems with behaviour and emotions that extend beyond the preschool years and having negative effects on the children’s later well-being and school performance.

Across countries, there are important differences related to the goals, organization, and educational philosophies of care provided to young children prior to formal schooling. Those differences are likely reflected in the classroom practices and teacher-child interactions within a country’s early childhood education and care (ECEC) classrooms. This study aims to evaluate the within-country relevance of two classroom observation measures primarily based on a behavioral count approach focused on teacher and child behaviors; and to examine preschool practices in Sweden, Portugal, and the U.S., as they reflect each country’s ECEC goals, organization, and educational philosophies. Participants are 78 preschool settings in Sweden, 42 in Portugal, and 168 in the U.S. Results show that the measures targeted culturally-relevant behaviors and provided inter-rater reliability for the behavior count variables in the three countries. Future collaborations may address additional culturally-specific variables. The behavioral descriptions yielded by combining behavioral counts of the measures are analyzed by researchers from the relevant country for insights to the country’s values related to early childhood as well as current debates regarding care for children. Measures that provide comprehensive descriptions of classroom settings and apply minimal external or comparative value judgments on the behaviors observed are of practical utility for collaborative international work.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Social interactions in preschool and a child's gender are, in cross-sectional studies, related to the child's overall levels of hyperactive behaviour and engagement in preschool activities. However, whether social interaction and gender can predict children's engagement and hyperactivity is not thoroughly investigated. This study aims to investigate the longitudinal influence of gender, child-to-child interaction, and teacher responsiveness on the association between trajectories of children's levels of core engagement and hyperactive behaviour. It was hypothesized that peer-to-child interaction and teacher responsiveness in preschool settings are related to positive change in engagement among children with hyperactive behaviour, especially for boys.

SAMPLE AND METHODS: Swedish preschool staff completed questionnaires assessing the variables of interest for children aged 1-5 (N = 203). Data were collected on three occasions over a two-year period. Latent growth curve (LGC) models were used to explore whether teacher responsiveness, peer-to-child interaction, and gender predict trajectories of engagement and hyperactivity.

RESULTS: The results revealed that high levels of hyperactivity were associated with lower levels of engagement on the first occasion. Positive peer-to-child interactions and responsive teachers were significant predictors of an increased level of engagement and decreased level of hyperactive behaviour, especially for boys.

CONCLUSIONS: The findings underscore the need to improve social interactions, especially peer-to-child interactions, to improve engagement in children with hyperactive behaviour, especially boys. Implications for practices and research are discussed.

To follow the trajectories of children's engagement in learning, validated measures of engagement appropriate for different ages and educational contexts are needed. The purpose of this study was to adapt and validate the school engagement questionnaire (Engagement Versus Disaffection with Learning: Teacher Report, EDL) in the Swedish educational context, and to investigate if it assesses the same construct as a measure of engagement used for children of preschool age. After translating the questionnaire to Swedish, cognitive interviews were conducted with six teachers to check for interpretability and relevance of the items. For psychometric validation, teachers of 110 6 to 7-year-old children filled out EDL on two occasions two weeks apart. On the first occasion, they also filled out the Child Engagement Questionnaire, a measure of global engagement intended for children of preschool age. Dimensional structure, convergent validity, test-retest reliability, and internal consistency of EDL were investigated. Factor analysis provided support for differentiating between behavioral and emotional components of school engagement. Measures of school and preschool engagement used in this study correlated highly, which provides support for using them to study the engagement of children as they develop, and their educational contexts change. The subscales of behavioral and emotional engagement showed good test-retest reliability and internal consistency.

Engagement in preschool predicts children's development, learning, and wellbeing in later school years. The time children engage in activities and social interactions is conditional for preschool inclusion. Engagement is part of the construct participation, which is determined by attendance and involvement. Two suggested underlying dimensions of engagement had been identified as essential when assessing children's participation in preschool activities. As engagement is a key question in inclusion of all children, and preschool becomes a common context for them, it is increasingly important to understand the concept of engagement in those settings. In Sweden most children attend preschool but children in need of special support tend not to receive enough support for their everyday functioning. This study aimed to conceptualize child engagement in preschool with ICF-CY as a framework to clarify core and developmental engagement dimensions included in Child Engagement Questionnaire (CEQ). The content of CEQ was identified through linking processes based on ICF linking rules with some exceptions. Specific challenges and solutions were acknowledged. To identify engagement dimensions in the ICF-CY, CEQ items related to ICF-CY chapters were integrated in the two-dimensional model of engagement. Findings showed that engagement measured for preschool ages was mostly related to Learning and Applying knowledge belonging to Activities and Participation but the linkage detected missing areas. Broader perspectives of children's everyday functioning require extended assessment with consideration to mutual influences between activities, participation, body functions, and contextual factors. Related to core and developmental engagement, findings highlight the importance for preschool staff to pay attention to how children do things, not only what they do. Activities related to core engagement include basic skills; those related to developmental engagement set higher demands on the child. Linking challenges related to preschool context were not consistent with those reported for child health. Using the ICF-CY as a framework with a common language may lead to open discussions among persons around the child, clarify the different perspectives and knowledges of the persons, and facilitate decisions on how to implement support to a child in everyday life situations in preschool and at home.

The overall aim of this thesis is to enhance knowledge regarding engagement among children with and without need of special support due to behavior difficulties. The influence of social interaction as well as the provision of special support in Swedish preschool were investigated. Specifically, the aim was to explore children’s engagement at the nodal point between environmental factors, children’s behavior and characteristics, peer-to-child interaction and teacher responsiveness, both in a cross-sectional perspective and over time. In addition, predictive factors for special support were explored.

A prospective longitudinal survey design with three data points was used, with both quantitative and qualitative data. The sample consisted of 829 children, 425 boys and 394 girls (10 missing) from 92 preschool units in six municipalities in Sweden. The children participated in at least one wave of data collection. The preschool staff rated the children’s engagement, behavior difficulties, and the provision of special support. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses were conducted. For the cross-sectional analyses 663 children participated, and for the longitudinal analyses, 203 children participated. For the cross-sectional analyses logistics regression and content analyses as well as mediation analyses were used, meanwhile, structural equation models were used for longitudinal analyses, that is, growth curve model with multivariate analyses as well as autoregressive, cross-lagged panel analyses.

Overall, children with high levels of hyperactive behavior were less engaged in everyday activities in preschool. In addition, the peer-to-child interaction and teacher responsiveness were rated lower for these children, both in current time and longitudinally. Children’s hyperactive behavior had more negative influence on their core engagement (e.g. attentional behavior and persistence behavior), compared to their developmental engagement, (e.g.problem solving, involvement in complex rule-based play, more common for older preschoolers). The levels of social interaction explained a large percent of the negative effect between hyperactive behavior and engagement. Peer-to-child interaction explained between 56-78 percent, whereas teacher responsiveness explained between 33-34 percent.

Over time, the level of hyperactive behavior decreased more dramatically for girls than for boys. However, boys who became more engaged, showed less hyperactive behavior over time. The majority (63%) of the children displaying behavior difficulties (BD) did not receive special support on top of what was provided to all children in the classroom. No support was related to children being a second language learner in Swedish (EL2) or BDs that did not disturb the peer group or the teachers. Children more often received special support if the staff perceived the child’s behavior difficulties as disruptive in preschool activities or among peers. The most common type of support, mentioned by the staff, was paying attention to the child’s negative behavior, achieved by at least one member of the staff staying close to the child. Other examples of attention to the child’s negative behavior involved the preschool staff providing special support by paying attention to critical situations, by teacher’s proximity to the children, or by distracting the child from situations that could trigger negative behavior. Distractions were used more often for children with high engagement and BD.

Concerning directional and transactional paths, children’s core engagement was a significant predictor for both peer-to-child interaction and teacher responsiveness. That is, high levels of core engagement at T1 predicted both types of social interaction at T2, which in turn predicted children’s levels of core engagement at T3. Children’s hyperactive behavior did not predict lower ratings in social interactions in preschool over time, whereas, high ratings in peer-to-child interactions and teacher responsiveness were significant predictors for decreased hyperactive behavior over time. Once again, social interactions were important factors for promoting a decrease in children’s hyperactive behavior. Children with high levels of core engagement were more likely to be met by teacher responsiveness and positive peer-to-child interactions over time.

Several statistical relations exist between children’s engagement, BD, social interactions and special support in preschool settings. This thesis shows that perceived negative behaviors such as BD can co-exist with more positively perceived behaviors or characteristics, such as engagement. However, this research shows that well-functioning peer-to-child interaction and teacher interactions improve child engagement for children with hyperactive behavior, special support is not always provided and seldom focused on improving children’s engagement. In order to improve engagement among children in need of special support due to BD, it is necessary to consider both hyperactive behavior and engagement as well as the influence of social interactions. Teacher responsiveness and peer-to-child interaction may work as supportive factors for children with hyperactive behavior to help sustain attention and stay actively engaged in the activities. Preschool teachers need to self-reflect on their organization, planning ofeveryday activities and how to design special support that consider individual children’s needs for improving their engagement.

The Swedish preschool curriculum stipulates that all children independent of support needs should attend mainstream preschool groups, with equal opportunities for learning and engagement. Preschool teachers are responsible for paying attention to children in need of special support to achieve this. How support is provided for children in need of special support due to behavior difficulties in Swedish preschools varies, however. Some children, often formally identified as in need of special support, are supported by preschool staff supervised by external services. Other children receive support initiated and implemented by preschool staff, without supervision from external services. A further number of children receive no support for behavior difficulties, on top of what is provided to all children. This study investigated associations between support format (i.e. supervised support, staff-initiated support or no additional support), support content (i.e. implementation of support), behavior difficulties, socio-demographics and engagement. A mixed methods approach was used with a sample of 232 preschool children 15 to 71 months with assessed behavior difficulties. Preschool staff reported on the children's engagement, behavior difficulties, socio-demographics and support provision. Logistic regression models were used to analyze the probability of children receiving either support format. Content analysis was used to categorize the support content, reported by preschool staff through open-ended questions. Point-biserial correlations were used to test associations between support content, behavior, socio-demographics and engagement. All children receiving supervised support for behavior difficulties were formally identified by external services as in need of special support. Supervised support was also more common if children disturbed the free play in the preschool group, with the most frequent support being collaboration with external teams. Staff-initiated support was most commonly given to children with high engagement, and for children who are not early second language learners. These children were most frequently supported by staff paying attention to negative behavior. Children who were not perceived as a burden to the group were less likely to receive any form of additional support. Ways of managing the preschool group seem to guide support strategies for children with behavior difficulties, rather than child-focused strategies emphasizing engagement in everyday activities.

This study examined social interaction as a mediator between externalized behaviour difficulties and children's engagement in preschool. Data from 663 children (340 boys), aged 18–71 months, were collected at 81 Swedish preschool units in six municipalities to test a path model that included child, teacher, and child groups. The results indicated that behaviour difficulties and engagement may occur simultaneously. Hyperactivity had a direct negative influence on engagement, which was not the case with conduct problems. Teachers’ responsiveness as well as positive interactions with peers had an indirect influence on the relationship between hyperactivity and engagement. Responsive staff and positive interactions within the child group seem to contribute to children's engagement despite hyperactivity. Children's engagement, as well as special support to stimulate engagement in preschool, is discussed.