Short-Term Intervention Effects of the PATHS Curriculum in Young Low-Income Children: Capitalizing on Plasticity.
Short-Term Intervention Effects of the PATHS Curriculum in Young Low-Income Children: Capitalizing on Plasticity.
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DOI：
10.1007/s10935-016-0452-5
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发表时间：
2016-12
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相对于较富裕的儿童，在贫困中长大的儿童普遍存在行为和认知调节方面的缺陷，这是由于不利条件对这些技能的发展基础的影响。尽管有证据表明，这些新兴的过程容易受到环境的投入，研究记录短期干预计划对这些监管领域的影响，在年轻的贫困儿童是有限的。我们试图确定一个普遍的学校为基础的干预（PATHS课程）的社会，情感，关系和认知结果在城市贫困幼儿园儿童的近端效果。在人口统计特征相似的高贫困社区的四所学校被随机分配到PATHS或注意力控制。教师报告的行为措施（例如，注意力、集中力、攻击性），同伴提名（例如，可爱性、攻击性、接受性）和测量抑制控制的任务在幼儿园的秋季进行，并在PATHS的一个学年（约6个月）后的春季再次进行。接受PATHS的儿童在所有教师评定的社交能力行为指标方面（即，情绪调节、亲社会行为、同伴关系）和行为问题（即，攻击性，内化行为，冲动和多动）以及运动抑制的改善。这一系列研究构成了预防研究的一个重要前沿，因为它对改善其他方面处于不利地位的儿童的最终结果具有影响。
Deficits in behavioral and cognitive regulation are prevalent in children reared in poverty relative to more affluent children due to the effects of adverse conditions on the developmental underpinnings of these skills. Despite evidence to suggest that these emergent processes are susceptible to environmental inputs, research documenting short-term intervention program influences on these regulatory domains in young impoverished children is limited. We sought to determine the proximal effects of a universal school-based intervention (the PATHS Curriculum) on social, emotional, relational, and cognitive outcomes in urban poor kindergarten children. Four schools in high-poverty neighborhoods with similar demographic characteristics were randomly assigned to either PATHS or an attentional control. Teacher-reported measures of behavior (e.g., attention, concentration, aggression), peer nominations (e.g., likability, aggression, acceptance), and tasks gauging inhibitory control were administered in the fall of kindergarten and again in the spring after one academic year (about 6 months) of PATHS. Children who received PATHS exhibited significantly greater improvements than control students across all teacher-rated behavioral measures of social competence (i.e., emotion regulation, prosocial behavior, peer relations) and behavioral problems (i.e., aggression, internalizing behaviors, impulsivity and hyperactivity) at post-test as well as improvements in motor inhibition. This line of research constitutes an important frontier for prevention research given the implications for improving ultimate outcomes for otherwise disadvantaged children.