PreK–6.

PATHS (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies) is a research-based curriculum for preschool through elementary school (up to grade 6). It helps children develop emotional awareness and healthy peer relationships while reducing problem behavior and improving classroom climate.

The program is built around five domains: self-control, understanding and naming one's emotions, social skills, building good peer relationships, and the ability to work through interpersonal difficulties. The authors start from the idea that it is easier for a child to solve problems when they can recognize and regulate their own emotions, so the lessons go beyond theory and connect what happens inside the child to concrete real-life situations.

The materials are broken down into separate grade-level kits — from preschool and kindergarten through grades 5–6. The volume changes noticeably by year: from 36–44 lessons in the upper-grade kits to 50–52 in the lower grades, totaling about 260 sessions across the entire course. Each kit includes a teacher's guide with ready-made lessons, themed posters, emotion cards, and additional materials (puppets and picture books for younger grades, novels for older grades). Teachers also have separate access to an online library with worksheets, homework assignments, and materials for parents.

In more than 20 countries and thousands of schools (according to an independent meta-analysis, 2022); for example, by that point the program was being run in more than 250 schools in the United Kingdom.

Besides the USA, the program is officially available in at least the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and (partially) Croatia and China; a French adaptation is underway. No single up-to-date list of all countries of implementation could be found.

Besides English (including a separate British version), materials officially exist in German, Swedish (preschool and kindergarten only), Dutch, Welsh, and Portuguese; partially in Croatian and Chinese. A French version is in development.

The program is included in the CASEL Program Guide registry with SELect status — awarded to programs with proven effectiveness at the highest level of evidence. In addition, the program has received an independent Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development rating of Promising.

A 2015 study of 705 students in grades 4–6 in an urban school district in the northeastern United States found that, starting in grade 4, children in the program outperformed the control group in reading and math, and in grades 5–6, in writing as well.

A 1999 study covered 198 experimental and 180 control first-grade classrooms in four high-crime areas of the United States. After a course of 57 sessions, peers less often described children in the program as aggressive or excessively restless, and independent observers noted a calmer classroom atmosphere.

A longitudinal study of 2,937 students in grades 1–3 found that, two years later, teachers reported significantly less aggression and significantly higher social competence and engagement in class among children in the program.

A study of the preschool version of the program covered 20 Head Start classrooms in Pennsylvania (10 experimental, 10 control). After 9 months of sessions, children were better able to recognize emotions, and both teachers and parents independently noted an increase in social competence.