Testing the PAX Good Behavior Game with and without school-based parenting support: study description and practical challenges

Abstract

Despite large government expenditures and the implementation of mental health-related initiatives and strategies, the social, emotional, and behavioral concerns about children remain a significant issue in Canada. Accordingly, our group has undertaken a three-arm cluster school-based field study in Western Canada to examine interventions intended to have positive impact on children. This article describes the structure and design of the study, the interventions deployed, and the challenges encountered in conducting this type of initiative. The main intervention is the PAX Good Behavior Game (PAX GBG), a school-based intervention designed to improve children’s self-regulation, prosocial behavior, and mental health outcomes. The study was designed to test the impact of the PAX GBG with or without school-based parenting support on classroom behavior, child outcomes for social-emotional and behavioral functioning, and teacher stress and wellbeing. The parenting support intervention draws on the Triple P-Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) to provide low-intensity programming for parents seeking to address common childhood behavioral issues. The article outlines the study’s research design, measures, and data collection procedures, describes the interventions, and discusses several practical and methodological challenges that occurred during implementation.

Keywords:

• Child
• mental health
• self-regulation
• school-based interventions
• PAX Good Behavior Game
• parenting support

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant from the Alberta Ministry of Health, in partnership with the Ministries of Education and Social Services.