Grade: 1
Contact: Sheppard G. Kellam
Department of Mental Hygiene,
Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
Prevention Research Center
Mason F. Lord Building, Suite 500
4940 Eastern Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21224
Phone: 410/550-3445, Fax: 410/550-3461
Online Manual: In HTML
PDF Format
The Good Behavior Game (GBG) aims at reducing early aggressive and shy behaviors. The program improves the teacher's ability to define tasks, set rules, and discipline students. At the beginning of the game, children are assigned to teams by their teacher who makes sure that teams contain equal numbers of aggressive/disruptive children and social isolates. Students work in teams in such a way that the individual is responsible to the rest of the group. The teacher then clearly defines a set of disruptive behaviors, which if displayed, will result in a team receiving a demerit. At the end of the game, those teams that have not exceeded the maximum number of demerits are rewarded with tangible rewards or rewarding activities, whereas those teams that have exceeded the maximum are not rewarded. Because the program seeks to modify the behavior of shy children without labeling them as such, shy children are often appointed Team Leader, with the responsibility for handing out prizes. After the students become used to the rules of the game, the teacher begins the game with no warning, so that students are always aware of their own behavior.
Effects of the GBG were measured by teacher ratings, peer nominations, and independent observations in the classrooms. All three evaluation methods showed positive effects by the end of the first grade, some effects (aggressive behavior and tobacco use) remained lower even in middle school.
Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Promising Program, 1999