Sample A: Cover Page of Thesis, Project, or Dissertation Proposal

Social-Emotional Prevention and Intervention Programs
In an attempt to create positive environments supporting children‘s social and
emotional development, several social-emotional prevention and intervention programs
have been implemented previously. Two such social-emotional prevention and
intervention programs will now be discussed in detail: the Preschool ―PATHS‖
Curriculum (Domitrovich, Cortes, & Greenberg, 2007) and Denham and Burton‘s (1996)
social-emotional intervention for at-risk 4-year-olds. These specific programs have
demonstrated positive developmental outcomes for participants, include ecologically
valid methods of program implementation, have an exclusive focus on preschool-aged
children facing socio-economic hardships, name preschool teachers the primary
facilitators of social-emotional development activities, and facilitate the socialization of
children‘s social-emotional competence as outlined in Denham‘s (1998) developmental
model (see Denham & Burton, 2003).
The Preschool ―PATHS‖ Curriculum (Domitrovich et al., 2007) includes five
primary objectives: developing the awareness and communication of children‘s own and
others‘ emotions, teaching affective and behavioral self-regulation, promoting positive
self-concepts and peer relationships, developing problem-solving skills, and creating a
positive social-emotional classroom environment. The curriculum provides children
developmentally appropriate instruction as well as opportunities to exercise newly
acquired skills in their every-day classroom lives in order to maximize the internalization
and application of these skills. Program implementation was accomplished in a highly
ecologically valid manner. Over approximately 9 months of the school year, Head Start
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