Adopt Preschool PATHS in Head Start and school programs to support social-emotional readiness for school entry¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 4 claims (4 for) · 2 studies (2 causal), q3 · 1 of 2 report an effect size · 4 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The editors' strategic implication recommends that "Head Start and school programs will find these multi-informant data to be of interest as they consider a curriculum to help prepare children for school entry." The recommendation rests on randomized trial evidence that the curriculum improved emotion knowledge and social competence and reduced teacher-rated withdrawal in preschool-age children.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Teacher capacity to deliver weekly lessons and extension activities across a 9-month period with coordinator support

Constraints¶

• Evidence characterized as from a promising practice confirmed by randomized clinical trials, not as a definitive established practice

Target Learners¶

• preschool-age children in Head Start and school programs

Target Learning Goals¶

• social and emotional competence
• school readiness

Claims¶

• Teachers implemented Preschool PATHS with high fidelity and positive engagement in the trial [+W]
• Preschool PATHS increases emotion knowledge and parent- and teacher-rated social competence in Head Start children [+W]
• Teachers rated PATHS intervention children as less socially withdrawn than controls at year end [+W]
• A replication trial with 267 preschoolers found greater gains in social skills and stronger teacher-child and parent-teacher relationships than controls [+W]

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Domitrovich, C. E., Cortes, R. C., & Greenberg, M. T. (2007). Improving Young Children's Social and Emotional Competence: A Randomized Trial of the Preschool "PATHS" Curriculum. Journal of Primary Prevention, 28, 67–91. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10935-007-0081-0