Impact of a social-emotional and character development program on school-level indicators of academic achievement, absenteeism, and disciplinary outcomes: a matched-pair, cluster randomized, controlled trial
Open accessAbstract
This article reports the effects of a comprehensive elementary school-based social-emotional and character education program on school-level achievement, absenteeism, and disciplinary outcomes utilizing a matched-pair, cluster-randomized, controlled design. The Positive Action Hawai'i trial included 20 racially/ethnically diverse schools (M enrollment = 544) and was conducted from the 2002–03 through the 2005–06 academic years. Using school-level archival data, analyses comparing change from baseline (2002) to 1-year posttrial (2007) revealed that intervention schools scored 9.8% better on the TerraNova (2nd ed.) test for reading and 8.8% on math, that 20.7% better in Hawai'i Content and Performance Standards scores for reading and 51.4% better in math, and that intervention schools reported 15.2% lower absenteeism and fewer suspensions (72.6%) and retentions (72.7%). Overall, effect sizes were moderate to large (range = 0.5–1.1) for all of the examined outcomes. Sensitivity analyses using permutation models and random-intercept growth curve models substantiated results. The results provide evidence that a comprehensive school-based program, specifically developed to target student behavior and character, can positively influence school-level achievement, attendance, and disciplinary outcomes concurrently.
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Less outdoor time is provided because teachers find it hard to maintain control of the children.
“less outdoor time is provided because teachers find it hard to maintain control of the children”
From The LiiNK Project®: Effects of Multiple Recesses and Character Curriculum on Classroom Behaviors and Listening Skills in Grades K–2 Children (2018) · cites this paper as Snyder et al., 2010
The Introduction discusses disruptive behavior, and the Results > Implementation section reports time spent on social-emotional and character-development activities. Neither addresses outdoor time or says teachers reduce it because they have difficulty controlling children. Searches for outdoor time, recess, playgrounds, and teacher control found no supporting passage in our copy; page numbers were not available. (LLM, conf=0.76)
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References 108 · Cited by 130
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- Authors
- Snyder, F., Flay, B., Vuchinich, S., Acock, A., Washburn, I., Beets, M., & Li, K.-K.
- Affiliations
- Oregon State University (US)
- University of South Carolina (US)
- University of Hong Kong (HK)
- Venue
- Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2009-12-23
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 26-55
- ISSN
- 1934-5739 (ISSN-L)
- 1934-5747
- PMC
- PMC2857737
- OpenAlex
- W1992358964
- Cited by
- 130
- References
- 108
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 16.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA013474)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Early Childhood Education and Development
- Social Sciences › Education › Education Discipline and Inequality
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Youth Development and Social Support
- Keywords
- social-emotional learning, character education, elementary school, academic performance, school absenteeism, school suspension, school retention, student discipline, student behavior, school-based intervention
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