German Study of The PATHS^® Curriculum in an Afterschool Context 

Hacker and Colleagues (Hacker et al, 2007) examine the effectiveness of the PATHS^® afterschool program (a 12 lesson version developed for afterschool contexts) in a quasi-experimental study of 93 children that were part of a larger longitudinal study in Southern Germany. Teachers were trained by experienced PATHS^® trainers and used the curriculum on a daily basis, beginning with a weekly lesson and then proceeding with follow-up activities during each week. Intervention and comparison children were compared using unbiased teacher ratings and pre-test, post-test and one year follow-up.

At post-test there was a significant reduction in problem behavior (p<.05, effect size =.39) and a trend toward an increase in prosocial behavior (p<.10, effect size = .39). Results at follow-up (Stemmler, Losel and Hacker, 2008) indicated that effects were maintained one year after the intervention ended with significant increases in prosocial behavior (effect size = .31) and reductions in problem behavior (effect size = .34); the greatest effects were shown for children who at pre-test had higher rates of problem behavior.