A Multi-Site Cluster Randomized Trial of CharacterStrong’s PurposeFull People Elementary SEL and Character Education Program

Social-emotional learning (SEL) and character education during the elementary years is important to prevent social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) difficulties and promote success-enabling factors. Using a cluster-randomized trial, this study evaluated the effects of PurposeFull People (PfP) – an SEL and character education program – in the context of schools. We conducted a multi-site cluster-randomized trial to examine the effects of PurposeFull People (PfP; an SEL and character education program) on four student SEB outcomes (behavior expectations, behavior discipline, character traits, and academic engaged time). This study took place in 10 elementary schools (i.e., sites). At each school, 44 teachers/classrooms were randomly assigned to either treatment (PfP; ntreatment teacher=22) or control condition (business-as-usual). An average of eight students were randomly recruited from each teacher’s classroom (nstudent total=354; ntreatment student = 177). The four student outcomes were assessed at baseline and 4-month posttest after completion of the PfP program. Three-level general and generalized linear mixed models were used to estimate the effects of PfP on student outcomes and to probe treatment effect heterogeneity across student subgroups based on baseline status on each outcome. Compared to business-as-usual, the PfP produced significant improvements in all four student outcomes. Results about cross-level interactions indicated that the effects of PfP on students' character traits and academic engaged time varied based on their baseline status, where students struggling more at baseline showed a larger improvement than those functioning adequately at baseline. Limitations and implications for future research and practice are discussed.