The PAX Good Behavior Game: A scoping review of implementation and dissemination strategies and outcomes to inform expansion efforts in educational contexts.

Dissemination and evaluation of the PAX Good Behavior Game (PAX GBG) have produced a body of published and unpublished literature that, if mapped, can provide valuable insights for future expansion and evaluation efforts. Conducting a scoping review of implementation and dissemination studies and gray literature (i.e., “sources”), we aimed to identify (1) implementation strategies being used to support PAX GBG in schools, (2) implementation outcomes assessed across sources, and (3) dissemination strategies being used to promote practice-based implementation of PAX GBG in schools. Our search strategies resulted in 47 sources meeting criteria for full-text extraction. We identified eight implementation strategies: Ongoing consultation/coaching, promoting adaptability (as uniquely defined by each author team), and adaptation of training were the most common. These strategies may be important for future evaluation. Implementation fidelity, implementation quality, and data on coaching sessions (e.g., number/length of sessions) were the most commonly assessed implementation outcomes. However, implementation outcomes were assessed in less than 60% of sources, highlighting the need for feasible methods for documenting such outcomes. The most commonly mentioned dissemination strategies were identifying determinants of innovation uptake, increasing audience skills, funding, and adapting information to context. However, no sources explicitly evaluated the impact of dissemination strategies, underscoring an important direction for future studies. 

Citation: Iwai, Y., Campbell, C., Boddapati, S., Rosencrans, M., Dillon, C., Evans, S. W., Thomas, G. V., & Owens, J. S. (2025). The PAX Good Behavior Game: A scoping review of implementation and dissemination strategies and outcomes to inform expansion efforts in educational contexts. School Mental Health, 17(3), 733–752. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-025-09785-8