Implementing School Wide PBS in Middle Schools: The Foundation for Effective Prevention

The specific aims for the project are as follows:

1. Evaluate the effects of the PBS intervention in a group-randomized trial in which middle schools are assigned to receive systematic training and consultation in the implementation of PBS or a one-day workshop on PBS (the control group).

2. The PBS intervention group is expected to improve school behavior management practices compared to the control group.

3. School climate is expected to improve in the PBS intervention group compared to the control group.

4. Problem behaviors and deviant peer group formation are expected to decrease for students in the PBS intervention group compared to those in the control group.

5. The development of problem behavior in later adolescence is expected to be lessened for the PBS intervention students compared to those in the control group.

The effects of the intervention will be assessed through staff, student, and observer reports of discipline practices in schools. The investigators will assess changes in the frequency of in-school problem behaviors as measured by student reports, office discipline referrals, and out-of-school suspensions. Measures of student and teacher perception of the quality of school climate will include student reports of harassment and teacher reports of burnout. Formation of deviant peer groups will be assessed through student reports of their peer affiliation. Finally, adolescents' development of problems will be assessed over as many as five years through annual surveys of antisocial behavior, substance use, high risk sexual behavior, and depression. 2. Assess the differential impact of intervention fidelity on targeted outcomes. No real-world implementation of a preventive intervention can be expected to be implemented with perfect fidelity in every school. The study will:

1. Assess the degree of fidelity of implementation of all PBS intervention aspects.
2. Examine the relationship of fidelity to changes in each of the targeted outcomes: discipline practices, in-school problem behavior, peer relations, deviant peer group formation, and adolescent problems.
3. Provide further information about the specific facets of PBS associated with particular outcomes.
4. To the extent that fidelity is related to outcome, above the simple relationship between condition assignment and outcome, it will strengthen the investigators confidence in the efficacy of PBS practices.
5. Test a model of the influence of middle school discipline practices on the development of adolescent problems. The model, which is specified in Figure 1 and the following pages, posits that: