Impact of the Good Behavior Game, a universal classroom-based behavior intervention, on young adult service use for problems with emotions, behavior, or drugs or alcohol

Abstract

Background-The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is a classroom behavior management strategy focused on socializing children to the role of student and aimed at reducing early aggressive, disruptive behavior, a confirmed antecedent to service use. The GBG was tested in a randomized field trial in 19 elementary schools in two cohorts of children as they attended first and second grades. This article reports on the impact of the GBG on service use through young adulthood.Methods-Three or four schools in each of five urban areas were matched and randomly assigned to one of three conditions: 1) GBG, 2) an intervention aimed at academic achievement, or 3) the standard program of the school system. Children were assigned to classrooms to ensure balance, and teachers and classrooms were randomly assigned to intervention conditions.Results-This study provides evidence of a positive impact of a universal preventive intervention on later service use by males, although not by females, for problems with emotions, behavior, or drugs or alcohol. For both cohorts, males in GBG classrooms who had been rated as highly aggressive, disruptive by their teachers in the fall of first grade had a lower rate of school-based service use than their counterparts in control classrooms.Phone: 410-347-8553, Email: jpoduska@air.org. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Replication-The design employed two cohorts of students. Although both first-and second-grade teachers received less training and support with the second cohorts of students than with the first cohort, the impact of GBG was similar across both cohorts. NIH Public Access KeywordsGood Behavior Game; developmental epidemiology; universal prevention; classroom behavior management; aggressive behavior; mental health service use

Methods for testing theory and evaluating impact in randomized field trials: Intent-to-treat analyses for integrating the perspectives of person, place, and time

“…Even if no interactive impact with baseline individual level risk is found, individual level risk may affect outcomes as a main effect. Even when the outcome is far removed in time from the intervention period, there can be dramatic continuities of these antecedent risks over time, as we have found in our analyses of the role of aggressive, disruptive behavior in the long-term effects of the GBG Petras et al, 2008;Poduska et al, 2008;Wilcox et al, 2008).…”

“…Thus if a classroom were assigned to the GBG but the teacher never performed the GBG or performed it poorly then the ITT analysis would still assign this classroom to the GBG condition. True to this definition, the GBG impact analyses in Kellam et al (2008) and Poduska et al (2008) were based on the combined GBG classrooms, the internal GBG control classrooms, all external control classrooms, and internal ML controls classrooms in the ML schools. Only the ML classrooms were excluded because they provided no information about the GBG impact nor could they be used as controls because of ML's own potential impact.…”

School, A Place to Learn Social and Antisocial Behavior

“…Another instance about preventing crime in schools is good behavior game (GBG) that is for controlling students' behaviors in class. This program stresses socializing children playing student role and seeks goals of reducing early violence and antisocial behavior (18). Another approach considered as indirect method for controlling children in school is to train teachers.…”

Evaluation of the Implementation of a Preventive Program for Children in Brazilian Schools

“…For example, faculty and staff who produce interactions based on coercion and punishment can intensify students' maladaptive behaviors (Poduska et al, 2008) and produce the stigmatization of children who are already in the most vulnerable situation.…”

“…The psychosocial vulnerabilities that children face in environments such as family, community or school could be decisive in the development of socially maladaptive behaviors such as aggression, disruption, shyness, and social isolation. These early maladaptive behaviors are risk factors for future antisocial behavior at a later age, such as substance abuse, risky sexual behavior, and suicidal ideation (Embry, 2002;Kellam et al, 2011;Kellam et al, 2014;Poduska et al, 2008).…”