Is the Preschool PATHS Curriculum Effective? A Review

Area of Science:

• Early Childhood Education
• Social-Emotional Learning
• Child Psychology

Background:

• The Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) curriculum is a universal intervention designed for preschools.
• Its goal is to enhance children's social-emotional learning (SEL) and decrease behavioral problems.
• This review focuses on evaluating the empirical evidence for its effectiveness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review published outcome studies on the preschool PATHS curriculum.
• To assess its impact on social-emotional competencies and problem behaviors in preschool-aged children.

Main Methods:

• A literature search identified five relevant outcome studies.
• Study designs included one randomized controlled trial, two quasi-experimental studies, and two pre-experimental studies.
• Data on social-emotional and problem behavior outcomes were extracted and analyzed.

Main Results:

• Evidence suggests a mild to moderate positive effect of the PATHS curriculum on social-emotional competencies.
• The evidence supporting the curriculum's role in reducing problem behaviors is limited and inconsistent.
• The curriculum's effectiveness as a universal intervention for behavior reduction requires further investigation.

Conclusions:

• Early childhood educators can expect potential benefits in social competence development.
• A direct translation of improved social skills to reduced problem behaviors is not consistently supported by current evidence.
• Further research is needed to clarify the curriculum's impact on behavior problems.