Supporting Social and Emotional Competence in Preschool Children
Condition: Children's Social Emotional Competence; Children's Well-being
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Social emotional competence is instrumental to children's health and development. The
      preschool edition of Promoting Alternative THinking Strategies (PATHS®) intervention was
      tested in this study. PATHS® is a universal teacher implemented, and school-based
      intervention. In the first years of this study, PATHS® which was originally developed in the
      United States was adapted for a Swedish preschool context according to a theoretical model
      for intervention cultural adaptation entitled the Planned Intervention Adaptation (PIA)
      protocol. After the cultural adaptation process, a two-wave pre-posttest randomized
      controlled trial of PsPATHS was conducted with Swedish preschool aged children.
      Implementation data were collected and outcome evaluation results are being finalized at the
      time that this protocol is being submitted in August 2020.
    

Detailed description: 
      Social emotional competence is instrumental to children's health and development. The
      preschool edition of Promoting Alternative THinking Strategies (PATHS®) intervention was
      tested in this study. PATHS® is a universal teacher implemented, and school-based
      intervention that aims to give preschool children a strategically timed boost in social
      emotional competence. Specifically, PATHS® encourages the use of interactive techniques to
      bolster children's ability to self-regulate, increase their adeptness at social cognitive
      problem solving, as well as to gain insight into their emotions and emotions of others. In
      the first years of this study, PATHS® which was originally developed in the United States was
      adapted for a Swedish preschool context according to a theoretical model for intervention
      cultural adaptation entitled the Planned Intervention Adaptation (PIA) protocol. PIA calls
      for specific small-scale research studies that guide the cultural adaptation of an imported
      intervention. After the cultural adaptation process, a two-wave pre-posttest randomized
      controlled trial of PsPATHS was conducted with Swedish preschool aged children. The main
      study, which this protocol documents was a two-wave pre to posttest, cluster randomized
      controlled trial with multi-method and informant assessment (N = 285 four and five-year-old
      Swedish children; 145 wait-list control and 140 intervention). Implementation data were
      collected and outcome evaluation results are being finalized at the time that this protocol
      is being submitted in August 2020.
    

Intervention name(s): Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS), Preschool Edition
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): PATHS® is a universal teacher implemented, and school-based intervention that aims to give preschool children a strategically timed boost in social emotional competence. Specifically, PATHS® encourages the use of interactive techniques to bolster children's ability to self-regulate, increase their adeptness at social cognitive problem solving, as well as to gain insight into their emotions and emotions of others.
Other intervention name(s): PATHS
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: The design used was a cluster randomized controlled intervention trial, with a waitlist comparison group, with pre and post-testing.
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies; Preschool; Children; Sweden; PATHS