This week, the Edge Foundation released results of the largest research study to date on coaching for young adults. The study was conducted by researchers at Wayne State University, and the coaches were from the Edge Foundation, with which I am affiliated.
A total of 127 college students participated in the study and were randomly assigned to either the treatment group (coaching) or the comparison group. Students in each group completed several questionnaires both initially and after the intervention. Additionally, after the intervention, consisting of 24 coaching sessions, interviews were conduced with students in the treatment group to elicit information about their individual experiences of coaching. Here are key findings from the study:
The Edge model of ADHD coaching, a model I use in my practice:
- improved students’ approach to learning
- increased students’ well being and led to more positive emotional states, and
- is highly effective in helping students improve self-regulation, study skills and will.
Students who received this type of coaching showed:
- substantial gains in their overall approach to learning,
- significant improvement in their ability to organize, direct and manage cognitive activities, emotional responses, and overt behaviors,
- increased ability to formulate realistic goals and consistently work toward achieving them
- more effective time management skills, and
- improved ability to stick with tasks even when they found them challenging.
The impact of this coaching was highly statistically significant:
- Improvement in self regulation was more than double for that of other educational interventions.
- The improvement in executive functioning was quadruple other interventions.
- Research findings with effect sizes that large (i.e. double and quadruple other interventions) are rare.
For more detail about the study, see the following website: http://www.edgefoundation.org/information/research/edge-research-executive-summary/