Research on teacher outcomes of the School-Wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) model has been scarce. The present study adds to the knowledge base by examining the effects of the Norwegian version of SWPBS (N-PALS) on school staffs’ behavior management practices and on their individual and collective efficacy. Questionnaire data were collected from staff and students (Grades 4-7) at four measurement points across four successive school years in 28 intervention schools and 20 comparison schools. Using longitudinal multilevel analyses, indications of positive 3-year main effects of the N-PALS model were observed for staff-reported collective efficacy, self-efficacy, and positive behavior support practices. The intervention effects as measured by Cohen’s d ranged from .14 to .91. The effects on student perceptions of teachers’ behavior management strategies were, however, not consistent with the positive staff ratings. Results are discussed in relation to prior research, future research, and study limitations.

The aims of this study were to assess the longitudinal trajectories of externalizing problem behavior during middle childhood among typically developing children and to examine subgroup differences in the effectiveness of the School-Wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) model, called N-PALS in Norway. Participants were approximately 3000 students, and behavioral assessments were performed by class head teachers at four time points from the 4th or 5th grade through the 7th grade. Using a combination of latent class growth analyses (LCGA) and growth mixture modeling (GMM), four distinct trajectory classes were identified, i.e., persistent low (84.4%), persistent high (2.5%), decreasing (7.9%), and increasing (5.3%). An indication of a significant positive effect of the N-PALS model was found for students with a persistently high-risk trajectory. The current study adds to the evidence that this school-wide prevention model can moderate the development of externalizing behavior problems among children and youth.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s11121-018-0938-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The aim of this study was to explore the longitudinal relation between internalizing symptoms and academic achievement, as two processes of children and youth development, among children in Norway, and whether having an immigrant background moderated this association. Data collected from 4,458 students in Norway in four waves over three years were analyzed with multi-group latent growth curve modeling (LGM). Results showed that internalizing symptoms level remained unchanged over time both for immigrant and non-immigrant children, while levels of academic achievement increased only for children of immigrants with both parents born outside of Norway. Further analyses supported a reciprocal relation between internalizing symptoms and academic achievement and revealed that the initial level of academic achievement predicted the rate of change in internalizing symptoms over time, but not vice versa. Moreover, immigrant background did not moderate the associations in the model, however, children of immigrants with both parents born abroad initially had lower levels of academic achievement, but showed an increase in academic achievement, compared to their non-immigrant peers as well as to peers with one native-born parent after controlling for gender and their grade at the first observation. The implications for policy and practice were discussed.

Background The group-based CBT intervention, the Adolescent Coping with Depression Course (ACDC) , has previously been evaluated within a quasi-experimental design, showing reduction in depressive symptoms compared to a benchmark of similar studies. The aim of our study was to investigate the effectiveness of ACDC within a randomized controlled (RCT) design. Method Thirty-five course/control leaders randomly assigned to provide ACDC or usual care (UC) recruited 133 adolescents allocated to ACDC and 95 to UC. ACDC participants received eight weekly sessions and two follow-up sessions about 3 and 6 weeks after the last session. UC participants received usual care as implemented at the different sites. Depressive symptoms were measured with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale for adolescents (CES-D), perfectionism with the revised version of the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS), and rumination with the revised version of the Ruminative Responses Scale (RRS). Attrition was considered missing at random (MAR) and handled with a full information maximum likelihood (FIML) procedure. Results Intention to treat analysis (ITT), including baseline scores and predictors of missing data as control or auxiliary variables, showed a small to medium reduction in depressive symptoms for the ACDC group compared to UC (d = −.31). Changes in perfectionism and rumination in favor of the intervention were also significant. Sensitivity analyses confirmed the findings from the ITT analyses. Conclusions The current study supports the effectiveness of this group-based CBT intervention. The intervention can hopefully result in clinically significant reductions in symptoms associated with depression among adolescents. Trial registration ISRCTN registry ISRCTN19700389 . Registered 6 October 2015.

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of the universal "Preventing Problem Behavior in School" (PPBS) intervention on both establishing high-quality learning environments and increasing the use of positive teaching strategies to prevent student problem behavior. PPBS was developed and piloted in Norway as an abbreviated version of the School-Wide Positive Behavior Support Model (SWPBS) and includes a four-day in-service training program for a school's entire staff. Seventeen primary schools (Grades 1-7) implementing PPBS and 20 control schools engaging in "practice as usual" were compared using a three-wave measurement design. Multilevel analyses based on staff ratings indicated significant positive main effects of PPBS in the moderate range on the level of school behavior problems, positive behavior management, and perceived staff efficacy. Moreover, school size, implementation quality, proportion of unqualified staff members, and program training dosage moderated the intervention outcomes. Student ratings did not, however, support the staff ratings. The results are discussed in relation to the outcomes of the full-scale SWPBS model, meta-analyses of school-wide interventions, and measurement issues. Study limitations, strengths, practical implications, and future directions are highlighted.