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Effects of a School-Based Social–Emotional and Character Development Program on Health Behaviors: A Matched-Pair, Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial

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Abstract

There is considerable research that suggests that school-based social–emotional programs can foster improved mental health and reduce problem behaviors for participating youth; in contrast, much less is known about the impact of these programs on physical health, even though some of these programs also include at least limited direct attention to promoting physical health behaviors. We examined the effects of one such program, Positive Action (PA), on physical health behaviors and body mass index (BMI), and tested for mediation of program effects through a measure of social–emotional and character development (SECD). Participating schools in the matched-pair, cluster-randomized trial were 14 low-performing K-8 Chicago Public Schools. We followed a cohort of students in each school from grades 3 to 8 (eight waves of data collection; 1170 total students). Student self-reports of health behaviors served as the basis for measures of healthy eating and exercise, unhealthy eating, personal hygiene, consistent bedtime, and SECD. We collected height and weight measurements at endpoint to calculate age- and gender-adjusted BMI z-scores. Longitudinal multilevel modeling analyses revealed evidence of favorable program effects on personal hygiene [effect size (ES) = 0.48], healthy eating and exercise (ES = 0.21), and unhealthy eating (ES = −0.19); in addition, BMI z-scores were lower among students in PA schools at endpoint (ES = −0.21). Program effects were not moderated by either gender or student mobility. Longitudinal structural equation modeling demonstrated mediation through SECD for healthy eating and exercise, unhealthy eating, and personal hygiene. Findings suggest that a SECD program without a primary focus on health behavior promotion can have a modest impact on outcomes in this domain during the childhood to adolescence transition.

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Acknowledgments

This project was funded by grants from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), US Department of Education: R305L030072, R305L030004 and R305A080253 to the University of Illinois at Chicago (2003–2005) and Oregon State University (2005–2012). Preparation of this manuscript was supported, in part, by NIAAA T32 AA014125.

Author contribution

Brian Flay and David DuBois conceived the study and obtained funding, David DuBois and UIC staff oversaw program implementation, the program developer (Carol G. Allred) provided teacher/staff training, UIC and MPR staff collected all data, Niloofar Bavarian led the data analysis and wrote the first draft of this manuscript, and all co-authors assisted in paper revision and approved the final version.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Health and Human Services, California State University, Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Blvd, Long Beach, CA, 90840, USA

    Niloofar Bavarian

  2. 4-H Youth Development Program, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California, Davis, CA, USA

    Kendra M. Lewis

  3. College of Public Health and Human Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Alan Acock, Samuel Vuchinich & Brian R. Flay

  4. School of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    David L. DuBois & Naida Silverthorn

  5. Health Sciences, Merrimack College, North Andover, MA, USA

    Zi Yan

  6. College of Health and Human Services, Governors State University, Chicago, IL, USA

    Joseph Day

Authors
  1. Niloofar Bavarian
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  2. Kendra M. Lewis
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  3. Alan Acock
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  4. David L. DuBois
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  6. Samuel Vuchinich
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  7. Naida Silverthorn
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  8. Joseph Day
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  9. Brian R. Flay
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Niloofar Bavarian or Brian R. Flay.

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Conflict of Interest

The research described herein was done using the program, the training, and technical support of Positive Action, Inc. in which Dr. Flay’s spouse holds a significant financial interest; Dr. Flay was not involved in conducting data collection or analysis. Issues regarding conflict of interest were reported to the relevant institutions and appropriately managed following the institutional guidelines.

Additional information

The initial phase (R305L030072) was a component of the Social and Character Development (SACD) Research Consortium. The SACD research program included multi-program evaluation data collected by MPR and complementary research study data collected by each grantee. The findings reported here are based only on the Chicago portion of the multi-program data and the complementary research data collected by the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and OSU (Brian Flay, Principal Investigator) under the SACD program.

The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Institute of Education Sciences, NIH, CDC, MPR, or every Consortium member, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

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Bavarian, N., Lewis, K.M., Acock, A. et al. Effects of a School-Based Social–Emotional and Character Development Program on Health Behaviors: A Matched-Pair, Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial. J Primary Prevent 37, 87–105 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10935-016-0417-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10935-016-0417-8

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