The Effect of Promoting Alternative THinking Strategies on Social Competence and Reading Achievement in Elementary School Children
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Date
2014-09
Authors
David, Margaret
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Mount Saint Vincent University
Abstract
This study examined the effect of the Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies universal
intervention on measures of social competence, word identification and word attack in elementary
school children. This study constituted the first analysis of data collected in the Socially and
Emotionally Aware Kids study and included data from the first of four years of the project.
Ninety-eight participants spanning grades primary to 2 at the study’s inception (mean age = 80.25
months) participated in the present study. Participants in the intervention condition (n = 57) were
included in the PATHS Social Emotional Learning intervention for 14 months. Students were
compared to same-aged controls (n = 41) on measures of aggressive/disruptive behaviours,
attention, and social-emotional competence as well as word recognition, and non-word reading.
No effect of the intervention was demonstrated through analysis of variance (ANOVA). Both
intervention and control students realized significant gains in attention/concentration, and socialemotional
competence over the 14 month time span. Both intervention and control participants
demonstrated a significant change in scores on both reading achievement tasks over time.
Regression analysis demonstrated a significant contribution of aggressive/disruptive behaviours
to word-recognition skills concurrently at pre-test.
Description
Keywords
Elementary school , Social Emotional Learning intervention , aggressive/disruptive behaviours