Promoting Positive Classroom Interactions: A Study with the Belgian Version of the Good Behavior Game

The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is a universal, classroom-based intervention aimed at preventing disruptive behaviour in elementary school. Inspired by the life course social field theory, positive interactions with peers and teachers are considered key for students’ behavioral development. Hence, promoting positive teacher behavioural management and enhancing peer relationships are central targets of the GBG; improvements in these classroom interactions are considered as working mechanisms. Whereas many studies have shown positive GBG-effects on students’ behavior, effects on classroom interactions have been studied to a much lesser extent. In this study, we investigated whether a Belgian adaptation of the Good Behavior Game improves teachers’ behavioral management and peer relationship quality. In addition, we hypothesized that intervention effects on peer relations would be stronger for children with low self-regulation, i.e., children low in effortful control and children high in aggression. These children may disturb others by their disruptive behavior and are therefore at risk for peer rejection. We hypothesized that peer relationship quality would increase especially for this group, because the GBG encourages both high- and low-self regulated children to interact with each other in a positive way. In a quasi-experimental study among 735 students and their 106 teachers from Grade 4 to 6 in ten Belgian elementary schools (M age = 10.26 years, 51.2% boys), teacher, student an peer reports were administered both at the beginning and the end of the school year. In the intervention condition (five schools), the GBG was implemented during that school year, whereas the control condition (the other five schools) received education as usual. Multilevel regression analyses (level 1: student, level 2: class) showed stronger improvements in self- and student-reported teacher behavioral management in the GBG classrooms. The intervention effect on peer relationship quality was moderated by the students’ aggression and effortful control respectively. Peer relationship quality decreased for both aggressive children and low effortful control children in the control condition, whereas in the intervention condition, peer relations remained constant for aggressive children and improved for children low in effortful control. These findings add to the scarce direct evidence that the GBG improves teacher behavioural management. Second, they suggest that the GBG can buffer negative effects of low self-regulation on children’s peer relations, and thus protect children at risk even without providing them with targeted or individualized interventions. Finally, this study adds to the growing evidence for the effectiveness of adapting evidence-based school interventions to the local educational context in which they are implemented.