Peer Management Interventions: A Meta-Analytic Review of Single-Case Research

Peer management intervention is a subtype of peer-mediated intervention that involves training individuals to implement standardized intervention protocols to modify the behavior of their peers. This meta-analysis of single-case research synthesized the results of 29 studies examining the effectiveness of school-based peer management interventions. The overall results indicate that peer management interventions are moderately effective (Tau-U = 0.78) at altering the behavior of students in the desired direction in a variety of domains including social skills, disruptive behavior, and academic engagement time. These results are consistent with similar meta-analyses examining the effects of academic peer-mediated interventions (e.g., Bowman-Perrott et al., 2013). Moderator variables including intervention target behavior, student interventionist training time, and matching of target students and student interventionists on a variety of demographic variables were examined. Limitations, implications, and future directions of the findings are discussed.