The role of children's on-task behavior in the prevention of aggressive behavior development and peer rejection: A randomized controlled study of the Good Behavior Game in Belgian elementary classrooms

Abstract

The role of children's on-task behavior in the prevention of aggressive behavior was assessed among 570 Dutch speaking children followed from second- to third-grade elementary school in Flanders, Belgium. A first objective was to investigate whether individual level variation of on-task behavior moderated the impact of a universal preventive intervention, the Good Behavior Game (GBG), on aggression development, controlling for classroom levels of on-task behavior. The second goal was to study whether improved on-task behavior or reductions in peer rejection mediated intervention impact on children's aggression. Second-grade classrooms were randomly assigned to the GBG or a control condition. Results showed that intervention impact was found only among children who had low-level on-task behavior at baseline. These children showed a decrease in aggression when in the GBG condition, which was not found among control group children. The reduction in aggression among low on-task children was mediated by reductions in peer rejection. No mediation effect of on-task behavior was found. These results suggest that the effect of a universal preventive intervention may depend upon initial levels of on-task behavior and that improvements in social relations with peers may explain the reductions in aggression among these low-on task children.

Introduction

Although many factors may influence student success in elementary school, one of the key factors in children's successful classroom adjustment is their on-task behavior. Children who fail in this central skill are at risk for poor academic achievement (e.g., Ladd et al., 2000, Lan et al., 2009), negative interactions with peers and teachers (e.g., Bellanti et al., 2000, Hughes and Kwok, 2006, Skinner and Belmont, 1993), and psychopathology, such as aggressive behavior development (e.g., Bellanti et al., 2000, Harachi et al., 2006). Given these findings, children who display low levels of on-task behavior may be an important target group for prevention effort. However, evidence on the role of on-task behavior for children's classroom adjustment has mainly come from observational studies and not from intervention studies. The present study focused on the role of children's on-task behavior in the prevention of aggressive behavior over grades 2 and 3 of elementary school. Two questions were addressed. The first was whether children's baseline levels of on-task behavior acted as a moderator of the effect of a universal preventive intervention, the Good Behavior Game intervention (GBG; Barrish et al., 1969, Dolan et al., 1989, Kellam et al., 2008), on aggressive behavior development. The second question focused on the processes through which children with low baseline levels of on-task behavior who received the GBG showed reductions in aggression.

Classroom on-task behavior, also referred to as academic behavior and classroom participation, concerns involvement in and attention and concentration for academic tasks in the classroom (Skinner, Kindermann, & Furrer, 2009). On-task behavior is observable through active behaviors, such as asking or answering questions, and passive behaviors, such as looking at the teacher who is giving an instruction (see Lan et al., 2009).

The capacity to stay on-task has been shown to be important not only for children's learning (e.g., Ladd et al., 2000, Lan et al., 2009) but also for children's social and behavioral adjustment. More specifically, children with low on-task behavior in kindergarten and elementary school have been shown to have higher average levels of aggressive behavior (Bellanti et al., 2000, Harachi et al., 2006, Morrison et al., 2002) and to follow a developmental trajectory with the average level of aggression increasing over time (Schaeffer, Petras, Ialongo, Poduska, & Kellam, 2003). Thus, children with low levels of classroom on-task behavior are at risk for increased levels and further development of aggression.

A moderator is a variable that “affects the direction and/or the strength of the relationship between an independent variable and the dependent variable” (Baron & Kenny, 1986, p. 1174). It is a variable that specifies under which conditions an effect, such as an intervention effect, occurs (Holmbeck, 1997). The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is a universal classroom team-based prevention program designed to improve elementary school children's behavior. The GBG aims to promote prosocial behavior while discouraging antisocial behavior in the classroom (e.g., Dolan et al., 1989). Randomized controlled intervention trials have shown that the GBG is effective in reducing children's disruptive behavior problems, including aggression (e.g., Dolan et al., 1993, Kellam et al., 1994, van Lier et al., 2004, van Lier et al., 2005, Witvliet et al., 2009) and associated problems such as alcohol abuse and depression (Kellam et al., 2008, Vuijk et al., 2007). However, as with other universal interventions, the GBG impact on reductions in aggression has been shown to be stronger for, or limited to, children who were characterized by risk factors for the development of aggression at baseline (e.g., Dolan et al., 1993, Kellam et al., 1994, van Lier et al., 2005; see also Coie et al., 1993, Flay et al., 2005). In particular, the study by Rebok, Hawkins, Krener, Mayer, and Kellam (1996), showed that after one year of intervention, the GBG was most effective in reducing aggression among those children who had difficulty in on-task behavior, such as concentration problems. However, the study of Rebok et al. (1996) did not take the classroom level of on-task behavior into account. Classes as a whole may be off-task, and therefore the effects of intervention on individual students could be accounted for by classroom effects.

Although not focusing on on-task behavior, there is some evidence that the classroom level of aggression moderated the effect of the GBG on children's aggressive behavior development (Kellam, Ling, Merisca, Brown, & Ialongo, 1998). For the control group, results showed that if initially aggressive boys were in a highly aggressive first-grade classroom, they had a much higher chance of being highly aggressive at age 12 than initially aggressive boys in a less aggressive classroom. This finding was less marked among GBG classrooms. Specifically, if aggressive boys had been in an initially highly aggressive GBG classroom, as compared to a highly aggressive control classroom, their chances of being highly aggressive at age 12 years were lower. Although the statistical power to attribute these results to the GBG was low, the findings suggested that classroom levels of aggression acted as a moderator of the impact of the GBG in reducing children's risks for aggressive behavior at age 12. As on-task behavior is linked to aggression (Bellanti et al., 2000, Harachi et al., 2006), it may well be that classroom levels of on-task behavior, and not individual variation of on-task behavior, act as the moderator of intervention impact.

When studying the possible moderating role of on-task behavior, it is important to determine if it is individual level variation in on-task behavior that moderates intervention impact when controlling for the classroom level variation. If individual level variation in on-task behavior moderates the GBG impact on aggression, it implies that changes at the individual level, regardless of group or classroom level, predicted these improvements. Hence, it is then suggested to search for mechanisms of change at the individual level. The first aim of the present study was therefore to examine whether children's on-task behavior acted as a moderator of the effect of the GBG on the development of aggression over the second and third grade, while controlling for mean classroom levels of initial on-task behavior.

The second research question pertains to the pathways through which children with low levels of on-task behavior may reduce their aggressive behavior. Whereas moderation provides information about for whom an intervention is effective, mediation of the moderation effect identifies how the intervention is effective for a specific subgroup (Morgan-Lopez & MacKinnon, 2006). More specifically, a mediator is a variable that “accounts for the relation between the independent variable and the dependent variable” (Baron & Kenny, 1986, p. 1176). In other words is specifies how (or the mechanism by which) an effect such as an intervention effect occurs (Holmbeck, 1997). The GBG is a behavioral management intervention that, via structuring of the classroom, and by facilitating positive peer interactions, aims to reduce children's behavioral problems. Given this, the present study focused on two pathways through which the GBG may reduce aggressive behavior.

The first possible pathway is through improving on-task behavior. The GBG focuses on improving children's classroom behavior by explicitly defining appropriate on-task and prosocial behaviors, which are written into positively formulated classroom rules (e.g., “In the classroom, we work quietly.”), and accompanied by pictograms. Children's compliance to these rules is praised by the teacher (e.g., “You are doing a great job working quietly today!”). Rules may differ according to the specific tasks children have to complete or the lessons being taught. Via the resulting improved classroom structure, and in order to comply with the classroom rules, it is expected that GBG children will improve their classroom behavior, and especially increase their on-task behavior (van der Sar & Goudswaard, 2001). Some small-scaled studies showed that the GBG indeed improved children's on-task behavior (e.g., Fishbein and Wasik, 1981, Lannie and McCurdy, 2007). However, no studies to date have shown that improved on-task behaviors mediated the effect of the GBG on aggression. Thus, in addition to acting as a moderator, the improvement in on-task behavior during the intervention may act as mediator of the effect of the GBG on aggression among children.

A second pathway through which the GBG may decrease children's aggression is by improving children's peer relations (van Lier et al., 2005, Witvliet et al., 2009). Children with low on-task behavior are at risk for poor relations with peers (Bellanti et al., 2000). When children enter elementary school, classmates immediately start to evaluate their peers (see Dishion et al., 1994, Dodge et al., 1982). Children who do not live up to the standards of the mainstream peer group, such as low on-task children, have a high risk of becoming disliked (Boivin et al., 2005, Deater-Deckard, 2001, van Lier and Koot, 2008). When children are disliked by the majority of classmates, these children are seen as actively rejected by peers (Cillessen, 2009). Rejected children are likely to be deprived of contact with mainstream peers. As a result of the limited social interactions with mainstream peers, these children receive little social correction and guidelines for their behavior, which may facilitate, maintain, or exacerbate aggression over time (Keiley et al., 2000, Ladd, 2006, Sturaro et al., 2011; see overviews by Deater-Deckard, 2001, Parker et al., 2006, Rubin et al., 2006).

In the GBG intervention, children are assigned to mixed teams of children who either engage or do not engage in disruptive classroom behaviors. Team members are encouraged to work together and to reinforce each other in behaving appropriately. Teams as a whole are rewarded for complying with the classroom rules, and teachers praise teams and individual children for their good behavior. Because of the focus on teams and as teams change regularly, it is likely that the GBG will promote a sense of community within the teams and classrooms while teaching and providing for positive, prosocial peer interactions in a context that is beneficial for the self and others. A recent study showed that the reductions in boys' oppositional and conduct problems were mediated by improved peer acceptance as found among GBG children (Witvliet et al., 2009). In sum, the second aim of the present study was to examine whether improvements in on-task behavior, improvements in peer relations, or both types of improvements acted as mediators in the effect of the GBG on aggressive behavior development among those children with low baseline levels of on-task behavior.

The present study investigated the role of on-task behavior in the effect of the GBG on aggressive behavior development. It was hypothesized that initially low on-task GBG children would show a greater reduction in their aggression, compared to GBG children who did not have difficulty in on-task behavior at baseline and compared to control children. It was also hypothesized that this effect would hold even when controlling for the mean classroom level of initial on-task behavior. With regard to the mediation pathways, it was hypothesized that among GBG children with low baseline levels of on-task behavior, improvements in on-task behavior and peer relations would explain why these children showed reductions in aggressive behavior, as compared to low on-task control group children. All analyses will be controlled for possible influences of sex, as boys have been found to have higher levels of aggressive behavior (Moffitt, Caspi, Rutter, & Silva, 2001), lower levels of on-task behavior (Birch and Ladd, 1997, Zimmer-Gembeck et al., 2005), and more social problems than girls (Rubin et al., 2006).