Promoting Alternative THinking Strategies (PATHS)
Program Summary
The PATHS (Promoting Alternative THinking Strategies) Curriculum is a comprehensive program for promoting emotional and social competencies and reducing aggression and behavior problems in elementary school-aged children while simultaneously enhancing the educational process in the classroom. This innovative curriculum is designed to be used by educators and counselors in a multi-year, universal prevention model. Although primarily focused on the school and classroom settings, information and activities are also included for use with parents.
Program Targets:
The PATHS Curriculum was developed for use in the classroom setting with all elementary school aged-children. PATHS has been field-tested and researched with children in regular education classroom settings, as well as with a variety of special needs students (deaf, hearing-impaired, learning disabled, emotionally disturbed, mildly mentally delayed, and gifted). Ideally it should be initiated at the entrance to schooling and continue through Grade 5.
Program Content:
The PATHS Curriculum, taught three times per week for a minimum of 20-30 minutes per day, provides teachers with systematic, developmentally-based lessons, materials, and instructions for teaching their students emotional literacy, self-control, social competence, positive peer relations, and interpersonal problem-solving skills. A key objective of promoting these developmental skills is to prevent or reduce behavioral and emotional problems. PATHS lessons include instruction in identifying and labeling feelings, expressing feelings, assessing the intensity of feelings, managing feelings, understanding the difference between feelings and behaviors, delaying gratification, controlling impulses, reducing stress, self-talk, reading and interpreting social cues, understanding the perspectives of others, using steps for problem-solving and decision-making, having a positive attitude toward life, self-awareness, nonverbal communication skills, and verbal communication skills. Teachers receive training in a two- to three-day workshop and in bi-weekly meetings with the curriculum consultant.
Program Outcomes:
The PATHS Curriculum has been shown to improve protective factors and reduce behavioral risk factors. Evaluations have demonstrated significant improvements for program youth (regular education, special needs, and deaf) compared to control youth in the following areas:
- Improved self-control,
- Improved understanding and recognition of emotions,
- Increased ability to tolerate frustration,
- Use of more effective conflict-resolution strategies,
- Improved thinking and planning skills,
- Decreased anxiety/depressive symptoms (teacher report of special needs students),
- Decreased conduct problems (teacher report of special needs students),
- Decreased symptoms of sadness and depression (child report – special needs), and
- Decreased report of conduct problems, including aggression (child report).
Program Costs:
Program costs over a three-year period would range from $15/student/year to $45/student/year. The higher cost would include hiring an on-site coordinator, the lower cost would include redeploying current staff.
The information for this fact sheet was excerpted from:
Greenberg, M.T., Kusché, C. & Mihalic, S.F. (1998). Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS): Blueprints for Violence Prevention, Book Ten. Blueprints for Violence Prevention Series (D.S. Elliott, Series Editor). Boulder, CO: Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado.
1998 (Updated 08/2006)
Program Background
The PATHS (Promoting Alternative THinking Strategies) Curriculum was developed to fill the need for a comprehensive, developmentally-based curriculum intended to promote social and emotional competence and prevent or reduce behavior and emotional problems. From its inception, the goal of PATHS was focused on prevention through the development of essential developmental skills in emotional literacy, positive peer relations, and problem-solving. The Curriculum (Kusché & Greenberg, 1994) is designed to be taught by elementary school teachers from grade K through grade 5.
Two decades of prior research had indicated an increasing emphasis on the need for universal, school-based curricula for the purposes of both promoting emotional competence and decreasing risk factors related to later maladjustment. However, although previous research has suggested that such approaches might be especially effective during the elementary school years, most evaluations had been restricted in scope and/or had involved programs with considerable limitations (e.g., narrow developmental focus, short duration, and unreliable and invalid outcome measures). Extensive focus on teaching emotional competency, understanding, and awareness was notably lacking, and comprehensive evaluations and inclusive programs were rare. These shortcomings were surprising, given the wide range of curricula utilized in elementary education that were intended to promote social competence and prevent disorder. Nevertheless, research strongly suggested that a comprehensive prevention program in the classroom setting had the potential to provide much needed assistance for both normally-adjusted and behaviorally at-risk students.
In addition, we believed that the rapid and complex cultural changes of the past few decades, as well as those predicted for the foreseeable future, made emotional and social competency crucial requirements for adaptive and successful functioning of children and for their continuing adaptation as adolescents and adults. Although social and emotional competence had never been considered a necessary component of education in the past, we felt that it had become as critical for the basic knowledge repertoire of all children as reading, writing, and arithmetic. Teachers acknowledged that they had little background or established strategies to deal with emotional and social competency, so we felt that it was necessary to provide detailed lessons, as well as materials and instruction.
As with many of the more recent school-based preventive interventions, PATHS was designed to be taught by regular classroom teachers (initially with support from project staff) as an integrated component of the regular year-long curriculum. However, it is important to ensure that children generalize (i.e., apply the skills to new contexts) the use of PATHS skills to the remainder of the day and to other contexts. Thus, generalization activities and strategies were incorporated to be used in (and outside of) the classroom throughout each school day, and materials were included for use with parents.
More recent literature reviews have indicated that successful programs have the following characteristics: (a) utilizing a program of longer duration, (b) synthesizing a number of successful approaches, (c) incorporating a developmental model, (d) providing greater focus on the role of emotions and emotional development, (e) providing increased emphasis on generalization techniques, (f) providing ongoing training and support for implementation, and (g) utilizing multiple measures and follow-ups for assessing program effectiveness.
All seven of these under-emphasized but critical factors have been incorporated into the PATHS curriculum. Furthermore, as PATHS has been utilized with different cohorts and populations over the past 15 years, multiple field-tests with extensive feedback from teachers has led to expansion and improvement in PATHS over time.
Theoretical Rationale/Conceptual Framework
The PATHS prevention-intervention program is based on five conceptual models. The first, the ABCD (Affective-Behavioral-Cognitive-Dynamic) Model of Development focuses on the promotion of optimal developmental growth for each individual. The second model incorporates an eco-behavioral systems orientation and emphasizes the manner in which the teacher uses the curriculum model and generalizes the skills to build a healthy classroom atmosphere (i.e., one that supports the children's use and internalization of the material they have been taught). The third model involves the domains of neurobiology and brain structuralization/organization, while the fourth paradigm involves psychodynamic education (derived from Developmental Psychodynamic Theory). Finally, the fifth model includes psychological issues related to emotional awareness, or as it is more popularly labeled, emotional intelligence.
The ABCD Model
The ABCD model incorporates aspects of diverse theories of human development including psychodynamic developmental theory, developmental social cognition, cognitive developmental theory, cognitive social-learning theory, and attachment theory. The ABCD model places primary importance on the developmental integration of affect (i.e., emotion, feeling, mood) and emotion language, behavior, and cognitive understanding to promote social and emotional competence. A basic premise is that a child's coping, as reflected in his or her behavior and internal regulation, is a function of emotional awareness, affective-cognitive control, and social-cognitive understanding. Implicit in the ABCD model is the idea that during the maturational process, emotional development precedes most forms of cognition. That is, young children experience emotions and react on an emotional level long before they can verbalize their experiences. In early life, affective development is an important precursor of other ways of thinking and later needs to be integrated with cognitive and linguistic abilities, which are slower to develop. Table 1 presents a summary of stages in the ABCD Model (See Greenberg & Kusché, 1993 for elaboration).
During the first three years of life, the entire repertoire of emotional signals develops, and these signals/displays are subsequently used throughout the rest of an individual's lifetime. Thus, by the time children are beginning to utilize language fluently to express internal states of being (e.g., feeling sad, happy, jealous), most of their emotional responses have already become habitual.
By the end of the preschool years, most children have become skilled in both showing and interpreting emotional displays, although there are considerable individual differences in children's emotional profiles. The child also begins to demonstrate affective perspective-taking skills (i.e., the ability to differentiate the emotions, needs, and desires of different people in a particular context). The preschooler gradually finds new ways to cope with unpleasant emotions and discovers that internally experienced affects can be directly shared with others through verbal means. Furthermore, the child begins to regulate internal affective states through verbal self-regulation, a critical developmental achievement. An example of this ability is when a preschooler is able to tell someone he is angry instead of showing aggression towards a peer or object.
Between the ages of 5 and 7, children undergo a major developmental transformation that generally includes increases in cognitive processing skills, as well as changes in brain size and function. This transition and the accompanying alterations allow children to undertake major changes in responsibilities, independence, and social roles.
During the elementary school years, further developmental integrations occur between affect, behavior, and cognition/language. This integration is of crucial importance in achieving socially competent action and healthy peer relations. For example, in the early elementary years when a child has been rebuffed when attempting to enter a game with peers, she might walk away, calm down, assess how both she and the other kids feel, and think of another strategy to enter the game, or think of something else to do or someone else with whom she can play.
Although research has demonstrated the linkage between deficits in emotional development and psychopathology, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the crucial role of emotional development in models of preventive intervention. Taking this factor into account, the PATHS Curriculum model synthesizes the domains of self-control, emotional awareness and understanding, and social problem-solving to increase social and emotional competence.
Table 1
ABCD Model (Affective-Behavioral-Cognitive-Developmental)
Stages of Developmental Integration1. Infancy (Birth to 18 months)
Emotion = Communication
Arousal and Desire = Behavior2. Toddlerhood (18 months to 36 months)
Language Supplements Emotion = Communication
Very Initial Development of Emotional Labeling
Arousal and Desire = Behavior3. Preschool Years (3 to 6 years)
Language Develops Powerful Role in Communication
Child can Recognize/Label Basic Emotions
Arousal and Desire > Symbolic Mediation > Behavior
Development of Role-taking Abilities
Beginning of Reflective Social Planning Problem-Solving
(Generation of Alternative Plans for Behavior)4. School Years (6 to 12-13 years)
Thinking in Language has become Habitual
Increasing Ability to Reflect on and Plan Sequences of Action
Developing Ability to Consider Multiple Consequences of Action
Increasing Ability to Take Multiple Perspectives on a Situation5. Adolescence
Utilize Language in the Service of Hypothetical Thought
Ability to Simultaneously Consider Multiple Perspectives
The Eco-Behavioral Systems Model
The second conceptual model incorporates an eco-behavioral systems orientation and examines learning primarily at the level of systems change. School-based programs that focus independently on the child or environment are not as effective as those that simultaneously educate the child and instill positive changes in the environment. Training programs may appr opriately be considered person-centered when skills are taught in the absence of creating environmental supports for continued skill application in daily interactions. In contrast, ecologically oriented programs emphasize not only the teaching of skills, but also the creation of meaningful real-life opportunities to use skills and the establishment of structures to provide reinforcement for effective skill application. Thus, although a central goal of PATHS is to promote the developmental skills of each child by providing learning that integrates affect, cognition, and behavior, a critical ingredient for success is the development of a healthy classroom and school environment.
From this perspective, the success of skills training programs may depend largely on their attention to encouraging and supporting socialization patterns and supports in the intervention setting. For example, ecologically oriented problem-solving programs try to introduce a common social information processing framework that children and teachers can use to communicate more effectively about problem situations. In other words, they try to change not only the child's behavior, but also the teacher's behavior, the relationship between the teacher and child, and classroom and school-level resources and procedures to support adaptive problem-solving efforts, assuming that the interactions are dysfunctional or ineffective.
The generalization procedures, extensive teacher training, and focus on some level of parent participation used in PATHS have the goal of combining classroom instruction with efforts to create environmental support and reinforcement from peers, family members, school personnel health professionals, and other concerned community members. Further, training emphasizes the manner in which the teacher uses the curriculum model and generalizes the skills to build a healthy classroom atmosphere (i.e., one that supports the children's use and internalization of the material they have been taught).
Neurobiology and Brain Structuralization/Organization
When designing PATHS, we paid special attention to developmental models of brain organization. Two of the most relevant concepts we incorporated involve "vertical" control and "horizontal" communication (Kusché, 1984).
"Vertical" control refers to higher-order processing and regulation of emotion and actions by the frontal lobes over the limbic system and sensory-motor areas. When adults first experience emotional information, it is rapidly perceived and processed in the limbic system in the middle part of the brain. This initial information is then transmitted to the frontal lobes in the neocortex for further processing and interpretation, and, subsequently, the frontal lobes can transmit messages back to the limbic system to modify emotion signals and to the sensory-motor cortex to influence potential actions.
For example, if you saw a car coming towards you and you startled and jumped to the side of the road, all of this rapid processing would have occurred primarily in the limbic system without any true conscious awareness on your part. Afterwards, however, you would take in and process further information at a cortical level (e.g., the thought, "That car almost hit me!"; the color of the car; the license plate number, etc.). In addition to the initial fear, you would probably start to feel angry, as well as relieved, and you might decide to report the incident to the police.
Rapid primary processing is sometimes crucial for survival, as in this case, but secondary processing in the frontal cortex is important because it allows us to integrate data involving emotions with knowledge-based information, which, in turn, assists with making appropriate plans for further action.
Early in development (i.e., by the time of toddlerhood), there are few interconnections between the limbic system and the frontal lobes; thus, during the "terrible-twos," children frequently hit, bite, or kick "automatically" when they feel angry. As children mature, however, increasing neuronal interconnections evolve between the frontal lobes and the limbic system. This is especially important with regard to the development of self control, because the frontal cortex becomes increasingly able to regulate impulses from the limbic areas and modify potential actions. Between the ages of 5 and 7, a major shift occurs in which networks in the frontal areas achieve significant dominance with regard to exerting emotional self-regulation and behavioral self-control.
However, these developmental milestones do not automatically unfold, but rather are heavily influenced by environmental input throughout early childhood. Moreover, if these networks do not dev elop in an optimal manner, children will not have the neuronal structure necessary to control their actions in response to strong emotional signals.
Thus, in order to promote the development of executive or vertical control with PATHS, we teach children to practice conscious strategies for self-control, including self-talk (i.e., verbal mediation and the Control Signals Poster). For younger children and those with either delayed language or difficulties in behavioral and emotional control, we utilize the "Turtle Technique," which includes a motor-inhibiting response in addition to self-talk.
"Horizontal" communication refers to a phenomenon that results from the asymmetry of information processing in the two halves of the neocortex (the outermost and evolutionarily newer part of the brain).
The left hemisphere is responsible for processing receptive and expressive language as well as expressing positive affect. The right hemisphere is specialized for processing both comfortable and uncomfortable receptive affect and uncomfortable expressive affect in the majority of English-speaking adults, the only cultural group on which research is available (Bryden & Ley, 1983).
Nonlinguistic information (such as emotional signals) is often processed without awareness (preconscious processing) unless we verbally "think" about it. To verbally label our emotional experiences, and thus become consciously aware of them, this information must be transmitted to the left hemisphere. However, the left and right hemispheres can communicate with one another only via the corpus callosum, a "bridge" that horizontally connects the two sides of the brain. Therefore, in order to be truly aware of our emotional experiences, we must utilize both the right and left hemispheres. The language areas on the left side of the brain can also modify and influence affective processing in the right (Davidson, 1998; Sutton & Davidson, 1997).
An interesting situation occurs if, for some reason, emotion information does not reach the left hemisphere (e.g., an adequate neural network has never developed or interconnections are blocked from intercommunication). When this occurs, an individual will experience emotion, but will not be aware of having done so. Thus, other people can be aware of how the person feels (i.e., by observing facial cues), but the individual will not be aware of having experienced the feelings. A frequent illustration of this phenomenon occurs when a teacher observes a child who is clearly feeling angry, but that child truly has no conscious awareness of such an emotion ("I am not angry; I feel fine").
Development of the corpus callosum is relatively slow, so that it is only with maturation that optimum hemispheric communication is possible. As with vertical neural networks, the way in which interhemispheric communication occurs depends heavily on environmental input during development.
Based on this theory of "horizontal" communication and control, we hypothesized that verbal identification and labeling, especially of uncomfortable feelings, would powerfully assist with managing these feelings, controlling behavior, and improving hemispheric integration. Thus, we stress the use of Feeling Face cards that include both the facial drawing of each affect (recognition of which is mediated by the right hemisphere) and its printed label (which is mediated by the left). In addition, we also utilize a color-coded differentiation of comfortable (yellow) versus uncomfortable (blue) feelings. In addition, encouraging children to talk about emotional experiences (both at the time they are occurring and in recollection) further strengthens neural integration.
In summary, our knowledge of the neurobiological development of the brain was heavily influential in the development of PATHS. Research strongly suggests that learning experiences in the context of meaningful relationships during childhood influence the development of neural networks between different areas of the brain, which in turn affect self-control and emotional awareness. Thus, we incorporated strategies in PATHS to optimize the nature and quality of teacher-child and peer-peer interactions that are likely to impact brain development as well as learning (Greenberg & Snell, 1997). Optimum development of both "vertical" and "horizontal" communication and control during childhood should promote better adaptation in both current and later life.
Psychodynamic Education
The application of psychoanalytic theory to the education of children has only recently received significant attention. Psychodynamic education is intended to enhance developmental growth, promote mental health, and prevent emotional distress, but it is not treatment. In this regard, teachers are not therapists and are not expected to act as such. However, teachers are powerful role models (individuals with whom children can identify in a positive manner), and the information they impart is often given the status of absolute truth (i.e., omniscience), especially during the elementary school-age years. When teachers express an interest in children's feelings and emotional experiences or show respect for children's opinions, their students are impacted in a profound manner. As the teacher-student relationships grow increasingly more positive and enriched, learning is enhanced.
Psychodynamic education is derived from a developmental theory and aims to coordinate social, emotional, and cognitive growth. Teachers are encouraged to utilize actual classroom experiences and use children's creative, imaginal processes. Students can then develop a healthy sense of self-esteem from observing the positive reactions of others towards them, not because they have been encouraged to parrot simplistic affirmations. Further, teachers play a crucial role by providing clarifications and explanations of emotions and situations.
An important way in which psychodynamic education differs from other models is its emphasis on internalization, the process of healthy development of conscience, or "taking ownership" and self-responsibility for one's actions.
By promoting the development of internal self-control and self-motivation along with healthy standards for behavior, children develop an optimal sense of autonomy and decision-making while also considering the needs and feelings of others. For example, students contemplate and discuss the consequences of having good vs. bad manners and evaluate why good manners are important (e.g., the way we act affects how other people feel), rather than simply being taught a list of good manners that they are supposed to use. In this way, the children come to "own" the concepts as belonging to themselves (i.e., they internalize them); as a result, they voluntarily choose to use good manners because they believe it is the right thing to do.
In summary, some of the long-range goals of psychodynamic education are for each child to develop a kind but fair sense of prosocial behavioral control, positive sense of self, respect for self and others, healthy internal motivation, curiosity and love for learning, and so on that operate independently of the external environment. These factors enhance developmental growth, improve school functioning, and optimize mental health, while preventing antisocial tendencies, violent behavior, and substance abuse.
Psychological Issues Related to the Crucial Role of Emotional Awareness
Research suggests that as children develop more complex and accurate plans and strategies regarding emotions, these plans have a major influence on their social behavior. For example, the ability to think through problem situations and to anticipate their occurrence is critical for socially competent behavior. However, these "cold" cognitive processes are unlikely to be effectively utilized in real world conditions (e.g., when being teased) unless the child can both accurately process the emotional content of the situation and effectively regulate his or her emotional arousal so that he and she can think through the problem.
Similarly, if children misidentify their own feelings or those of others, they are likely to generate maladaptive solutions to a problem, regardless of their intellectual capacities. In addition to these types of challenges, the child's motivation to discuss these feelings and problem-solve in interpersonal contexts will also be greatly impacted by the modeling and reinforcement of adults and peers.
Emotional awareness and understanding are implicit in many models that have been developed to promote social competence, but have rarely been a central focus, even though numerous studies have assessed social problem-solving ability as both a mediator and outcome of intervention.
Recently, emotional competence has been subsumed under a new, more popular term, emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1995; Mayer & Salovey, 1997), defined as the ability to recognize emotional responses in oneself, other people, and situations, and use this knowledge in effective ways (e.g., in managing one's own emotional responses, motivating oneself, and handling relationships effectively). "Self-awareness—recognizing a feeling as it happens—is the keystone of emotional intelligence….[T]he ability to monitor feelings from moment to moment is [also] crucial to psychological insight and self-understanding. An inability to notice our true feelings leaves us at their mercy. People with greater certainty about their feelings are better pilots of their lives" (Goleman, 1995, p. 43). Thus, it has been proposed that emotional intelligence may be more important than cognitive intelligence in achieving success and happiness in life.
As such, a central focus of PATHS is encouraging children to discuss feelings, experiences, opinions, and needs that are personally meaningful, and making them feel listened to, supported, and respected by both teachers and peers. As a result, the internalization of feeling valued, cared for, appreciated, and part of a social group is facilitated, which, in turn, motivates children to value, care for, and appreciate themselves, their environment, their social groups, other people, and their world.
This focus cannot be emphasized enough. Although all children need to feel listened to or respected by others, especially adults, many children do not have an adult role model who will support them in this manner; hence, they do not learn to respect themselves or others. These aspects of socialization must be taught to children, and to become truly socialized, children must internalize and embrace them as their own, hopefully prior to reaching adolescence. It is important to recognize, however, that this cannot be forced upon children, but rather is best achieved through nurturance and respect.
Summary
The PATHS prevention model contains a number of basic principles that are drawn from the five theories discussed. First, the school environment is a fundamental ecology and one that can be a central locus of change. Second, to affect significant changes in children's social and emotional competence, it is necessary to take a holistic approach that includes a focus on affect, behavior, and cognitions. Third, children's ability to understand and discuss emotions is related to their ability to inhibit behavior by utilizing verbal self-control. Fourth, children's ability to understand their own and others' emotions is a central component of effective problem-solving and social interactions. Fifth, developmental models indicate that it is important to build protective factors (e.g., promote reflective thinking, problem solving, and the ability to accurately anticipate and evaluate situations) that decrease maladjustment. These skills, in turn, increase children's access to positive social interactions and provide opportunities for a greater variety of learning experiences. As such, these skills should also contribute to the amelioration of significant underachievement and promote skills that are beneficial to the prevention of other types of adolescent problem behaviors in the future (e.g., aggression, substance abuse, dangerous risk-taking, etc.).
Brief Description of Intervention
The PATHS Curriculum consists of an Instructional Manual, six volumes of lessons, pictures, photographs, posters, Feeling Faces, and additional materials. PATHS is divided into three major units: (1) the Readiness and Self-Control Unit, 12 lessons that focus on readiness skills and development of basic self-control; (2) the Feelings and Relationships Unit, 56 lessons that focus on teaching emotional and interpersonal understanding (i.e., Emotional Intelligence); and (3) the Interpersonal Cognitive Problem-Solving Unit, 33 lessons that cover eleven steps for formal interpersonal problem-solving. Two further areas of focus in PATHS involve building positive self-esteem and improving peer communications/relations. Rather than having separate units on these topics, relevant lessons are interspersed throughout the other three units. There is also a Supplementary Unit containing 30 lessons which review and extend PATHS concepts that are covered in the major three units. The PATHS units cover five conceptual domains:
- self-control,
- emotional understanding,
- positive self esteem,
- relationships, and
- interpersonal problem solving skills.
Each of these domains has a variety of sub-goals, depending on the particular developmental level and needs of the children receiving instruction.
PATHS is an expansive and flexible program that allows implementation of the 131 lessons over a 5 year period, but it should be noted that any particular lesson is not necessarily equivalent to one session; indeed, depending on the needs of any specific classroom, one PATHS lesson can run from one to five or more PATHS sessions. Pictures and photographs are included for all of the lessons, with smaller graphics provided in the margins of the scripts to make the curriculum more user-friendly. Most of the materials that are needed are included in The PATHS Curriculum kit, but supplementary materials can certainly be added as desired.
A separate volume is also included with PATHS to serve as an Instructional Manual for teachers. To encourage generalization to the home environment, parent letters and information are provided periodically in the curricular lessons and can be sent home by the teachers as desired. "Home activity assignments" (separate versions for younger and older students) are also included for children to do at home (e.g., Ask your mom or dad or other adult about a time when they felt proud) to further involve parents (please see Appendices E and F).
Evidence of Program Effectiveness
Three controlled studies with randomized control vs. experimental groups (using one year of PATHS implementation with pre, post, and follow-up data) have been conducted by the present authors. These have included three different populations including deaf/hearing impaired, regular education, and special education-classified children.
Increasing Protective Factors
In all three clinical trials, compared to matched control children, the use of the PATHS Curriculum has significantly increased the children's ability to:
- Recognize and understand emotions
- Understand social problems
- Develop effective alternative solutions
- Decrease the percentage of aggressive/violent solutions
In all three groups of children, teachers report significant improvements in children's prosocial behavior in the following domains:
- Self-control
- Emotional understanding
- Ability to tolerate frustration
- Use of effective conflict-resolution strategies
Cognitive testing indicates that PATHS leads to improvements in the following skills:
- Ability to plan ahead to solve complex tasks with normal and special needs children (WISC-R Block Design and Analogies of the Test of Cognitive Abilities; not tested in the Deaf/Hearing-Impaired group)
- Cognitive flexibility and low impulsivity with non-verbal tasks (Coding from the WISC-R)
- Improved reading achievement for young deaf children
Reducing Maladaptive Outcomes
Teachers report the following reductions in behavioral difficulties at one-year post intervention:
- Decreased internalizing symptoms (sadness, anxiety, and withdrawal) in special needs classrooms
- Decreased externalizing symptoms (aggressive and disruptive behavior) in special education classrooms
Students (in regular and special needs classes) self-report the following reductions in behavioral difficulties at one-year post intervention:
- Decreased symptoms of sadness and depression (Child Depression Inventory)
- Decreased report of conduct problems
Initial Finding from the National Fast Track Demonstration Program
The FT/PATHS Curriculum (a revised version of PATHS which maintains the critical components of the original curriculum) is the central universal prevention component of the Fast Track Program. Fast Track is a comprehensive program whose goals include the prevention of aggression and delinquency and the promotion of social and academic competence. The Fast Track Program involves a longitudinal design and is conducted in four American locations (Seattle, Nashville, Durham, and rural Pennsylvania). Findings at the end of first grade (after one year of implementation) indicate that in schools in which PATHS is operating, there is improved social adaptation (as compared to matched control schools) as indexed by more positive reports of the following dimensions:
- Lower peer aggression scores based on peer ratings (Sociometrics)
- Lower teacher ratings of disruptive behavior (Teacher report)
- Improved classroom atmosphere (assessed by Independent Observers)
Summary
PATHS has been shown to improve protective factors and reduce behavioral risk across a wide variety of elementary school-aged children. In addition, these findings have shown cross-rater validity, as they have been reflected in teacher ratings, self-reports, child testing/interviewing, and independent ratings by classroom observers.
The information for this fact sheet was excerpted from:
Greenberg, M.T., Kusché, C. & Mihalic, S.F. (1998). Blueprints for Violence Prevention, Book Ten: Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS). Boulder, CO: Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence.
Video Segment
Contact PATHS
PROMOTING ALTERNATIVE THINKING STRATEGIES (PATHS) |
| For information about training and technical assistance, contact: |
| Carol A. Kusche, Ph.D. Psychoanalyst and Clinical Psychologist PATHS Training, LLC 927 10th Avenue East Seattle, WA 98102 Phone and Fax: (206) 323-6688 Email: ckusche@comcast.net Website: www.prevention.psu.edu/projects/PATHS.html |
| Dorothy Morelli Phone: (615) 364-6606 Email: dorothygm@hotmail.com |
| For information about ordering curriculum materials, contact: |
| Channing Bete Company One Community Place South Deerfield, MA 01373-0200 Phone: (800) 477-4776 Fax: (800) 499-6464 Email: custsvcs@channing-bete.com Website: www.channing-bete.com/prevention-programs/paths |
| For information about program research, contact: |
| Mark T. Greenberg, Ph.D. Prevention Research Center Human Development and Family Studies Pennsylvania State University 109 Henderson Building South University Park, PA 16802-6504 Phone: (814) 863-0112 Fax: (814) 865-2530 Email: mxg47@psu.edu Website: www.prevention.psu.edu |
