Cultural adaptation of preschool PATHS (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies) curriculum for Pakistani children

Abstract

Cultural adaptation of evidence-based programmes has gained importance primarily owing to its perceived impact on the established effectiveness of a programme. To date, many researchers have proposed different frameworks for systematic adaptation process. This article presents the cultural adaptation of preschool Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) curriculum for Pakistani children using the heuristic framework of adaptation (Barrera & Castro, 2006). The study was completed in four steps: information gathering, preliminary adaptation design, preliminary adaptation test and adaptation refinement. Feedbacks on programme content suggested universality of the core programme components. Suggested changes were mostly surface structure: language, presentation of materials, conceptual equivalence of concepts, training needs of implementation staff and frequency of programme delivery. In-depth analysis was done to acquire cultural equivalence. Pilot testing of the outcome measures showed strong internal consistency. The results were further discussed with reference to similar work undertaken in other cultures.

Children’s social emotional competence in Pakistan and Sweden: Factor structure and measurement invariance of the Social Competence Scale (teacher edition)

“…The study procedure and circumstances of the Pakistani study has several parallels to the Swedish study, in that recruitment in both studies took place first at the preschool level. However, in this case, instead of convenience sampling (as was used in the Swedish study), a purposive sampling technique was used in the Pakistani study to recruit seven private sector preschools ( Inam et al, 2015 ; Inam, 2016 ). Individual children were then recruited into the study from participating schools.…”

“…Individual children were then recruited into the study from participating schools. Both studies took place in large cities in the respective nations, and in this case all data are from the pre-test (i.e., cross-sectional data) of the intervention trial of a culturally adapted edition of the preschool PATHS program ( Inam et al, 2015 ). As in the Swedish study, the SCS-T was part of a wider assessment battery completed by teachers for individual children participating in the PATHS trial ( Inam et al, 2015 ).…”

A Cluster Randomized Trial of Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS®) With Swedish Preschool Children

“…Child task-Inhibitory control 2 (EF2)-An adapted version of the Day-Night task (Gerstadt et al, 1994) was used to measure inhibition, specifically interference control. Different pictures representing opposites, i.e.…”

Exploring Social Competence, Temperament and School Adjustment in Pakistani Preschool Sample

“…In comparison there is dearth of research in non-Western cultures and low and middle-income countries like Pakistan (e.g., McCoy et al, 2016); and no research has examined this constellation of factors in Pakistani samples. Where similar research on Pakistani children does exist, it is concerned primarily with quantifying the presence of emotional and behavior problems in older children (e.g., Hussein, 2010;Malik et al, 2019;Syed & Hussein, 2009; for exception, see Finch et al, 2018) interventions (e.g., Inam et al, 2015;Zainulabdin, 2020). Country vides statistics indicate that more than a quarter of Pakistani preschoolers' social-emotional skills are at a low level, this is indexed by high level of aggression, distraction and low or poor social competence on ECDI (Early Childhood Development Index) (Flinch et al, 2018) As Pakistani parents and the broader society observe that children's refusal to go to school, absenteeism, and school dropout are on the rise (Malik et al, 2019), research on the importance of temperament and its consequent social and school adjustment is both timely and important.…”