After-school programs are designed to provide safe venues for academic enhancement, recreation, and positive youth development. They can be a place in children’s communities that can foster supportive relationships with adults and positive interactions with their peers. However, the degree to which after-school programs actually accomplish these important goals can be enhanced when the programs have clear guidelines for behavior that also involve the youth in setting and encouraging these guidelines. One successful approach that has been used in schools to combat disruptive behavior and decrease youth aggression and substance abuse is the Good Behavior Game (GBG), a cooperative game that allows youth to establish collective, positive behaviors for their classroom or program. With this grant, the LEGACY Together Project will adapt GBG for after-school programs serving elementary children of diverse racial-ethnic, socio-economic, and geographic backgrounds to assess whether the game improves the staff practices, youth engagement, and the climate of the program. The randomized trial will take place in 72 elementary school-based after-school programs in urban and rural Pennsylvania; 36 programs will receive the GBG intervention while the other 36 will continue to operate as usual. Observational data and survey data from directors, staff, and children will be collected before and after the intervention to examine the effects of the program as well as the ways in which the program impacts both adult staff and participating youth.
After-school programs are designed to provide safe venues for academic enhancement, recreation, and positive youth development. They can be a place in children’s communities that can foster supportive relationships with adults and positive interactions with their peers.
