Good Behavior Game (GBG)
BPP06
1999 (Updated 08/2006)
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Program Overview:
The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is a classroom management strategy designed to improve aggressive/disruptive classroom behavior and prevent later criminality. It is implemented when children are in early elementary grades in order to provide students with the skills they need to respond to later, possibly negative, life experiences and societal influences.
Program Targets:
The program is universal and can be applied to general populations of early elementary school children, although the most significant results have been found for children demonstrating early high-risk behavior.
Program Content:
The Good Behavior Game is primarily a behavior modification program that involves students and teachers. It improves teachers' ability to define tasks, set rules, and discipline students, and allows students to work in teams in which each individual is responsible to the rest of the group. Before the game begins, teachers clearly specify those disruptive behaviors (e.g., verbal and physical disruptions, noncompliance, etc.) which, ir displayed, will result in a team's receiving a checkmark on the board. By the end of the game, teams that have not exceed the maximum number of marks are rewarded, while teams that exceed this standard receive no rewards. Eventually, the teacher begins the game with no warning and at different periods during the day so that students are always monitoring their behavior and conforming to expectations.
Program Outcomes:
Evaluations of the program have demonstrated beneficial effects for children at the end of the first grade and positive outcomes at grade 6 for males displaying early aggressive behavior.
At the end of first grade, GBG students, compared to a control group, had:
- Less aggressive and shy behaviors according to teachers, and
- Better peer nominations of aggressive behavior.
At the end of sixth grade, GBG students, compared to a control group, demonstrated:
- Decreases in levels of aggression for males who were rated highest for aggression in the first grade.
References
Barrish, H.H., Saunders, M., & Wolf, M.M. (1969, Summer) Good Behavior Game: Effects of Individual Contingencies for Group Consequences on Disruptive Behavior in a Classroom. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2(2), 119-124.
Dolan, L.J., Kellam, S.G., Brown, C.H., Werthamer-Larsson, L., Rebok, G.W., Mayer, L.S., Laudoff, J., Turkkan, J.S., Ford, C., & Wheeler, L. (1993, July-September). The Short-Term Impact of Two Classroom-Based Preventive Interventions on Aggressive and Shy Behaviors and Poor Achievement. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 14(3), 317-345.
Embry, D.D. (2002, December). The Good Behavior Game: A Best Practice Candidate as a Universal Behavioral Vaccine. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 5(4), 273-297.
Swiezy, N.B., Matson, J.L., & Box, P. (1992). The Good Behavior Game: A Token Reinforcement System for Preschoolers. Child and Family Behavior Therapy, 14(3), 21-32.
Contact GBG
GOOD BEHAVIOR GAME (GBG) |
| For information about materials and training, contact: |
| Hazelden Publishing and Educational Services 15251 Pleasant Valley Road P.O. Box 176 Center City, MN 55012-0176 Phone: (800) 328-9000 or (651) 213-4200 Fax: (651) 213-4590 Email: customersupport@hazelden.org Email: rschladweiler@hazelden.org (Contact Roxanne Schladweiler for training) Website: www.hazelden.org |
| For information about dissemination of materials based on the original research and training from the original program designers, contact: |
| Carla Ford Center for Integrating Education and Prevention Science in Schools American Institutes for Research 921 East Fort Avenue, Suite 225 Baltimore, MD 21230 Phone: (410) 347-8554 E-mail: cford@air.org |
| For information about program research, contact: |
| Sheppard G. Kellam, Ph.D. Center for Integrating Education and Prevention Science in Schools American Institutes for Research 921 East Fort Avenue, Suite 225 Baltimore, MD 21230 Email: skellam@air.org |
| Jeanne Poduska, Sc.D. Deputy Director and Principal Research Scientist Center for Integrating Education and Prevention Science in Schools American Institutes for Research 921 East Fort Avenue, Suite 225 Baltimore, MD 21230 Phone: (410) 347-8553 E-mail: jpoduska@air.org |
