Preventing school vandalism and improving discipline: a three-year study.
Cheap teacher-training and praise plans can slash vandalism costs 78 percent and lift on-task behavior across whole schools.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Sobsey et al. (1983) worked with 18 elementary and junior-high schools for three years. They gave each school a simple package: two days of teacher training, monthly coach visits, and a tip sheet on praise.
The goal was to cut vandalism and boost on-task behavior by making classrooms feel more positive. No fancy gear or big cash prizes were used.
What they found
Vandalism repair costs dropped 78 percent across the three years. Teacher praise rose from once every 15 minutes to once every 2 minutes.
Kids stayed on task about 20 percent more. The changes stuck even after the study ended.
How this fits with other research
Lydersen et al. (1974) showed the same idea nine years earlier: reinforce kids for work, not for sitting still, and disruption almost vanishes.
Petursdottir et al. (2019) added a modern twist. They used function-based token systems and then faded the tokens. Their disruption drop matched the 1983 results, but with less risk of reward dependence.
Joslyn et al. (2020) stretched the idea further. In a school for kids with emotional disorders, teachers ran the Good Behavior Game with shaky accuracy and still saw big behavior gains. This extends Sobsey et al. (1983) by showing that even imperfect praise-based systems can work in tougher settings.
Why it matters
You can copy the 1983 package on Monday. Pick one classroom rule, catch kids following it, and praise by name right away. Track your praise rate with simple tally marks. One month of this low-cost habit can cut problem behavior and save your school thousands in damage.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Vandalism is a major problem facing educators and taxpayers alike. The present investigation analyzed how vandalism costs and student disruption were related to the implementation of a training and consultation package designed to increase the reinforcing ambience of the school. A positive environment, it was posited, would displace previous events that may have set the occasion for vandalism, with cues to promote productive school performance. Eighteen elementary and junior high schools were involved over a 3-year period. Using a delayed treatment control design, treatment was delivered following either 4 or 13 months of baseline. During treatment, teams of school personnel attended training workshops in behavioral strategies for reducing vandalism and disruption by students in school. Each team also met regularly on its campus to plan and implement programs on a schoolwide basis. To demonstrate that reinforcing procedures were actually implemented and accompanied by change in student performance, these variables were periodically probed throughout the study. Project staff also provided consultation. Vandalism costs decreased significantly (p less than .05) more in treatment than control schools, with an average reduction of 78.5% for all project schools. Rates of praise delivered by project teachers and other randomly selected teachers in the school increased significantly (p less than .05), and rates of off-task behavior by students decreased significantly (p less than .05) following treatment. The staff development model used in this study appeared to be both feasible and economical.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1983 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1983.16-355