The Good Behavior Game as a universal preventive intervention: A systematic review of its long-term effects.

The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is a team-based classroom management intervention developed to mitigate disruptive behaviors and promote prosocial behaviors of school-aged children. While the short-term benefits of the GBG are well documented in meta-analyses and systematic reviews, it is less clear for what long-term outcomes the GBG may reduce risk. The goal of this systematic review was to synthesize findings across papers that evaluated the long-term effects of the GBG. A total of 22 papers from 5 original studies examining the influence of the GBG on a myriad of distal outcomes across the lifespan were identified by our search and met inclusion criteria for this review. Distal outcomes were assigned confidence in evidence indicators (i.e., strong, moderate, mixed, no evidence) and we specified for what developmental period and participant subgroup GBG treatment effects were found. Results revealed that there is strong evidence the GBG decreases the risk of tobacco use in late adolescence. There is also moderate evidence that the GBG prevents the progression of disruptive/aggressive behaviors from developing into more severe forms of externalizing behavior (e.g., antisocial/criminal behavior) among persistently aggressive children. When paired with a curriculum enhancement, the GBG is more likely to bolster math/reading achievement, thereby increasing the likelihood of college attendance especially for women. Additional outcomes showed moderate evidence (e.g., illicit substance use, prosocial behaviors, suicidal behaviors) whereas other outcomes showed mixed to no evidence (e.g., social acceptance, alcohol use). Given only a handful of these outcomes have been tested by independent researchers across developmental periods, more replication studies are needed to fully appreciate the GBG’s long-term impact on less studied outcomes. 

Citation: Smith, S. D., Rivera, F. A. P., DeFouw, E. R., Walbridge, F., Harris, T., Wilde, Z. C., Cotter, M., & Reichow, B. (2025). The Good Behavior Game as a universal preventive intervention: A systematic review of its long-term effects. Prevention Science, 26(6), 968–984. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-025-01833-8