Extrait

Background and study aims This five-year project will evaluate the effectiveness of a primary school based intervention called Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS). PATHS helps children manage their behaviour, understand their emotions and work well with others. It is a 'universal' intervention in which all children in a given class take part. PATHS is supported by a very strong international evidence base. In the last 20 years a number of high quality studies have shown that is has a meaningful effect on children's social and emotional competence, health-related quality of life, and academic attainment. The intervention itself consists of 131 lessons across five volumes and one readiness unit that cover topics such as identifying and labelling feelings, controlling impulses, reducing stress, and understanding other people's perspectives. It is designed to be delivered by teachers for about one hour per week (usually 3 x 20 minute sessions). The project we are proposing is important because research tells us that there has been an increase in emotional and behavioural difficulties among children and young people in the last 30 years. Also, a recent international survey ranked the UK last among 21 developed countries in childhood wellbeing. It is therefore crucial that we examine the effects of interventions like PATHS - which aim to prevent such problems before they occur so that we can determine whether all schools and children in England would benefit from this kind of work. Our main aim is to examine the impact of the PATHS curriculum on the social and emotional wellbeing of children in primary schools in England. Who can participate? All children who are on a given participating school’s full-time roll in each of the Year 3, 4 and 5 classes at the start of the trial will be considered as potential participants. What does the study involve? We will randomly allocate 50 schools to an intervention group or comparison group. The 25 intervention group schools will be trained to provide the PATHS intervention. Their teachers will then use the intervention materials to deliver lessons three times a week over a two year period to pupils in Years 3, 4 and 5 (the 25 comparison group schools will continue their usual practice during this period). Members of our team will work with and support these schools to ensure that PATHS is implemented properly, and we will record any changes they make to see if this affects later outcomes. We will work very closely with schools on this aspect, collecting data on things like dosage (e.g. do schools deliver the required number of lessons?) and fidelity (e.g. do schools deliver PATHS as it was intended in the intervention manual?) and also talking to teachers, pupils and their parents about their experiences of taking part. At the end of the two year period, schools will be free to continue (or, in the case of control schools, start) to implement PATHS. The 1,250 children who were in Year 5 at the beginning of the project and transfer to secondary school at the end of the main trial will be followed-up for a further two years to see if the PATHS curriculum impacts upon their adjustment to their new school, and also to see if any intervention effects are sustained over time. We will take a range of measures at regular intervals to help us find out if PATHS is effective, including social and emotional competence, health related quality of life, school attendance, and academic attainment. We will also perform analyses that will tell us if the intervention provides good value for money. What are the possible benefits and risks of participating? The project presents the opportunity to participate in a large and rigorous educational research study which will lead to significant advancements in theory, research and practice in promoting social and emotional wellbeing in education; furthermore, the procurement of aggregated survey data for each school is extremely useful for school planning and other (e.g. school inspections) requirements. It is extremely unlikely that participation in the data generation activities noted above will yield any adverse effects. The child surveys are both positively worded/focused and neither cover what might be deemed to be distressing issues. Although the teacher and parent surveys cover some potentially sensitive issues (such as emotional symptoms), previous studies have found no reports of any adverse effects. Where is the study run from? The study will be conducted in primary schools in Greater Manchester. When is study starting and how long is it expected to run for? The study itself runs from January 2012 until August 2017. The schools that implement PATHS will do so from September 2012 to July 2014. Who is funding the study? The study is funded by the National Institute for Health Research Who is the main contact? [email protected]

Critère d'inclusion

• Social and emotional wellbeing

Liens

• isrctn
• ictrp