Blues Program Overview
The Blues Program and Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) are both school-based prevention programs that target students in need. These are model programs for both male and female participants. Each of these programs target similar risk and protective factors, many of which are linked to problems both in school and later in life.
The Blues Program is a group of 15 to 18-year-old students that meet for six weeks in a group setting; each session is an hour long. These group meetings encourage positive socialization and self-care activities amongst the students. It strives to equip them with mental health and coping tools that will help them with all future endeavors and encounters. During the program, students learn “cognitive restructuring techniques” and “develop response plans for future life stressors.” The program also includes practice assignments to take home; this encourages students to incorporate the program’s teachings into their daily practices and form healthy and long-lasting habits. The protective factor is individual coping skills, and the follow-up tests show that the intervention group shows better “social adjustment” and healthier thoughts (Mihalic, n.d.). There are many factors that contribute to its credibility. This program also uses a control group alongside follow-up testing to improve internal validity.
The Blues Program tested well in their post-tests and all follow-ups. The participants tested with overall lower depressive symptoms, in both self-evaluations and interviews. They also tested lower in major depression rates as well as less substance abuse, and a subgroup analysis of the Blues Program “found no differences in program effects across race and ethnic groups.” (Mihalic, n.d.). Participants reported lower rates of depression and substance abuse at a six-month interview. At two-year follow-up interviews, both interviewers and participants noted greater reductions in depressive symptoms (Rohde, Stice, Shaw, & Briere, 2014).
The program encourages positive actions because they believe that depression is rooted in negative thought patterns. The cognitive vulnerability model (Beck, 1967) suggests that pre-depressed and depressed individuals are essentially stuck in a negative feedback loop of selective attention; they only see the bad things.
The study also roots itself in the pure behavioral theories of depression. Essentially, these state that the reduction of environmental reward is a key factor leading to depression (Lewinsohn, 1974). This study encouraged positive thoughts, actions, and nonspecific therapeutic behaviors, according to Fig. 1 of the Logic Model. Adding these into students’ routines was proposed to reduce depressive symptom severity and ideally prevent the onset of Major Depressive Disorder. The Logic Model also suggests that a confiding relationship with a helpful person or people encourage any intervention’s effectiveness (Cruwys et al., 2014). This justifies the group setting of the program, as well as curriculum leadership.
This study assumes that depression is a battle that can be fought in the mind. Teaching practices like this can be seen as an alternative to medication. Use of behavioral techniques is effective in changing further behavioral problems. On a more practice-based level, the program assumes that positive thoughts and actions will lead to reduced depression across the board. These goals have duality in the fact that they are both short-term and long term. The students with current depressive symptoms may or may not experience immediate or quick relief. The long-term effects are more preventative in nature.
Accessibility was convenient for participants as it was within the school and the home assignments were simply extensions of the applications in the course. These home assignments help implement these practices into real-word productivity. These can help form habits, as well as a way to keep parents involved, like most successful prevention programs. Other signs of a successful program are the ability to replicate the program in other areas and if it can logically expand into other issues. This study was successfully produced three times.
If the Blues Program desired to expand their program beyond depression, there are a few areas that it could begin to include: anxiety, eating disorders, grief, and more. As we discussed in class, prevention programs and intervention are generally more effective at an early age. This program does not start until high school. However, it is reporting strong results.
Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) is a program is aimed at late childhood: ages 5-11. The students are separated by grade level to make the content as relatable as possible for the group; because development is so rapid this early in life, that is ideal. However, the original multi-year model is available for purchase directly from the program publisher. These sessions occur twice or thrice every week, supplemented with daily activities to promote synthesizing the lessons with daily activities. Parents are also involved with the program; at-home assignments and letters are sent home to even further integrate lessons into each student’s life.
The risk factors are antisocial and aggressive behavior, as well as impulsivity. The protective factors in this study are problem solving, prosocial behavior, and emotion regulation. Each lesson set incorporates the following concepts: self-control, emotional understanding, positive self-esteem, relationships, and interpersonal problem-solving skills. The lesson units are designed to build upon one another, making each additional year in the program more valuable for each student. The lessons are designed to be implemented by regular classroom teachers, so there is likely little to no additional personnel cost for program implementation. The integration examples are: dialoguing, role-playing, story-telling, social and self-reinforcement, attribution training, and verbal mediation.
Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) was developed considering the ABCD (Affective-Behavioral-Cognitive-Dynamic) Model of Development, an eco-behavioral systems orientation, the domains of neurobiology and brain organization, the Developmental Psychodynamic Theory, and fostering emotional intelligence. Helping students to feel appreciated and cherish themselves intrinsically motivates them to care about the world around them. Altogether, each of these aspects accomplish self-efficacy and social learning. This program uses a cognitive behavioral and neurobiological approach for skill-oriented tasks.
The Blues Program is a selected and indicated prevention style, whereas PATHS is universal. Both programs implementation being in schools demonstrates its accessibility to those in the program. Both include take-home activities and foster real-world application. The PATHS program had many reproductions. This study yielded improvement in many of the outlined goals such as: emotional recognition, prosocial behavior, and less aggression (Averdijk, 2016). This was a common trend among other studies, as well.
The Blues program is in place during a moderately developmental age range but PATHS is during a much more developmental age: early elementary. The clusters of students in both programs are well-planned and ideal for each age group. The PATHS program addresses all bases in each unit, and this certainly diluted the content. Even teachers displayed only “modest enthusiasm” for the program due to their lack of satisfaction with the program materials themselves, lack of support (likely from their own institution) and time and effort required for implementation (Seifert, 2004).
The Blues Program does a better job of assessing which students are at a greater risk. The PATHS Program being universal is not ideal for need assessment, but the mass education approach is ideally good for all students of early elementary age. The PATHS program does not make the decision about whether or not it should be implemented in a school; the schools make the decision before purchasing the program from its publisher. The Blues Program implemented a one group pre-post design, whereas PATHS used a nonequivalent control group pre-post design. The main difference between these two is the use of a control group by PATHS. The Blues Program was only replicated four times, whereas PATHS had fourteen replications.
The Blues Program exhibited internal validity more than the PATHS program, mostly based on the study replications. While the Blues Program can be generalized due to its roots in the cognitive vulnerability model (Beck, 1967), PATHS did not carry the same strength. Additionally, students that did not begin the PATHS program in the beginning did not yield the same level of effective results as those who did participate throughout the entire program.
Of course, with each of these programs, there is no one answer for these complex problems. Both take holistic approaches, casting a broad and preventative net through an educational outlet. While the Blues Program is model, the PATHS program targets students at a much younger age. This provides the opportunity for much more growth in the developmental years and greater impact on those around them. Upon evaluating the PATHS program, each of its risk factors were addressed in the end and found to yield successful results.
With better support from schools, and perhaps a more narrowed approach, the PATHS program is likely more effective in preventing multiple health and behavioral problems. Learning these techniques so frequently as an integrated part of regular lessons educates students without making them feel marginalized, and that is key in effective implementation. The Blues Program could make students feel singled-out. Although there is nothing wrong with this, being singled out in any school environment is often seen as negative and degenerative unless it is for an obviously positive recognition.