Good behavior game – study protocol for a randomized controlled trial of a preventive behavior management program in a Swedish school context
The Swedish Good Behavior Game RCT is finished but not yet reported—keep an eye out for strong evidence on class-wide prevention.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Djamnezhad et al. (2023) wrote the plan for a big Swedish test of the Good Behavior Game. They placed entire elementary classes into two buckets. One bucket of classes will play the game. The other bucket keeps teaching as usual.
The plan is finished and all kids have been tracked, but the scores are not public yet.
What they found
Nothing yet. This paper only tells us how the study was built and that data collection is done. The real answers on behavior, academics, and teacher stress will come in later reports.
How this fits with other research
The plan follows a long line of work. Hake et al. (1983) first showed that group prizes can steer classroom behavior. Their lab work is the grandparent of every Good Behavior Game trial.
Several 2023 studies show fast ways to train adults. Campanaro et al. (2023) and Ibañez et al. (2023) both used brief computer or live BST to get staff to near-perfect scores on new tasks. These quick-training wins hint that Swedish teachers might also reach high game fidelity after short coaching.
Strand et al. (2018) cut problem behavior with one-to-one FCT in a single child. The Swedish trial flips the lens: it asks if a class-wide game can stop problems before they start. Together they cover both ends of the prevention-to-treatment pipe.
Why it matters
Watch for the full results. If the game cuts disruption and boosts learning in a Scandinavian school system, you gain a ready-made package for U.S. general-ed rooms. While you wait, borrow the quick-staff-training tricks shown in Campanaro et al. (2023) and Ibañez et al. (2023) so your own teachers can learn the game in under two hours.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Set a Google Scholar alert for 'Djamnezhad Good Behavior Game' so you see the outcome paper the day it drops.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Early conduct problems and school failure are prominent risk factors for several adverse outcomes in later life. With the potential of reaching many children at early stages of their life, school-based interventions constitute a valuable approach to universal prevention. Good behavior game (GBG) is a promising school-based behavior management program, having shown immediate reductions in conduct problems along with several long-term positive effects. Adapting interventions to new contexts may however affect their effectiveness. The current study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a Swedish adaption of GBG under pragmatic conditions. The intervention is hypothesized to reduce conduct problems in the classroom (primary outcome). Secondary analyses will investigate changes in conduct problems in common school areas, classroom climate, teacher collective efficacy, on-task behavior, as well as investigating behavioral management practices, implementation, and barriers to implementation. This is a cluster-randomized trial with two parallel groups. Schools will be randomized (1,1, stratified by their areas sociodemographic index score) to be provided training in GBG or perform business-as-usual. The intervention and data collection lasts for a school year. Data will be collected at three time points: at baseline in the beginning of the school year (prior to training in GBG), after three months, and after nine months (at the end of the school year; primary endpoint). Data consists of teacher-rated measures of conduct problems, classroom climate, teacher collective efficacy, behavior management practices, and implementation factors, along with demographic factors. In addition, data will be collected by independent and blinded observers using corresponding measures in a subset of randomly chosen classrooms. Procedural fidelity will be rated and collected by GBG-trainers during nine observations throughout the school year. Statistical analysis will include frequentist intention-to-treat analysis, and comparisons of estimates with a corresponding Bayesian model using weakly informative priors. The study has currently completed data collection. This study will provide knowledge in universal prevention and school-based interventions with high reach, as well as specific knowledge concerning the effectiveness of an adapted version of GBG under real-world conditions, along with factors affecting its implementation and effects. ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier NCT05794893.
Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2023 · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1256714