Peer Group Reinforcement for Doing the Right Thing
Peer Written Recognition for Positive Behavior and Social Impact
Having peers write and post public recognitions for each other’s positive behavior is a powerful developmentally informed intervention, appealing directly to the preference of maturing children and youth for peer social attention. The public positing of peer written recognition is very inexpensive, but does take some adult supervision to make it effective. Older children and teens can have major roles in implementing all components of the ritual and systems of peer recognition.
Often peers tend to reinforce negative behavior; laughing at the class clown, or serving as bystander to bullying. We need to encourage frequent reinforcement by peers of peers for doing the right thing—academics, socially, and in the community. Such peer group reinforcement is a behavioral vaccine, and it has a number of variations. There are many studies (including randomized control group studies and high quality quasi-experimental studies) showing powerful prevention effects of such peer reinforcement on improved behavior, improved academics, reduced delinquency, reduced vandalism, reduced violent injury, etc.. One of the best implementations and studies involves the PeaceBuilders project, which utilized the earlier work of G. Roy Mayer on praise notes created by students for each other’s good behavior and helpful acts that were posted on a “Praise Board”.
References
Embry, D. D., Flannery, D. J., Vazsonyi, A. T., Powell, K. E., & Atha, H. (1996). PeaceBuilders: A theoretically driven, school-based model for early violence prevention. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 12(5, Suppl), 91.
Farber, H., & Mayer, G. R. (1972). Behavior consultation in a barrio high school. Personnel & Guidance Journal,. 51(4), 273.
Flannery, D. J., Vazsonyi, A. T., Liau, A. K., Guo, S., Powell, K. E., Atha, H., et al. (2003). Initial behavior outcomes for the PeaceBuilders universal school-based violence prevention program. Developmental Psychology, 39(2), 292-308.
Krug, E. G., Brener, N. D., Dahlberg, L. L., Ryan, G. W., & Powell, K. E. (1997). The impact of an elementary school-based violence prevention program on visits to the school nurse. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 13(6), 459-463.
Mayer, G. R., Butterworth, T., Nafpaktitis, M., & Sulzer-Azaroff, B. (1983). Preventing school vandalism and improving discipline: A three-year study. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 16(4), 355.
Mayer, G. R., Mitchell, L. K., Clementi, T., Clement-Robertson, E., & et al. (1993). A dropout prevention program for at-risk high school students: Emphasizing consulting to promote positive classroom climates. Education & Treatment of Children, 16(2), 135.
Skinner, C. H., Cashwell, T. H., & Skinner, A. L. (2000). Increasing tootling: The effects of a peer monitored group contingency program on students' reports of peers' prosocial behaviors. Psychology in the Schools, 37(3), 263-270.
Peer Group Reinforcement for Doing the Right Thing