Middle school teachers frequently struggle with positively managing student behavior. However, praise-to-reprimand ratios (PRRs) have received little research attention. PRRs studied in elementary school have been positively associated with improvements in on-task and prosocial behavior, but limited research has been conducted on optimal PRRs in middle schools. We conducted this study in the context of a randomized control trial of Class-wide Function-related Intervention Teams Middle School (CW-FIT MS) to isolate the effects of one of the main components of the intervention, PRR. After controlling for the intervention, we examined the effects of PRRs in 28 middle school classrooms on (a) class-wide on-task behavior, (b) on-task behavior of students at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), and (c) disruptive behavior of students at risk for EBD. Multivariate regressions revealed a statistically significant linear relationship between middle school PRRs and the variables of interest: As PRRs increased, on-task behavior of the entire class improved, on-task behavior and grades of students at risk for EBD increased, and disruptive behavior of students at risk for EBD decreased. We discuss the implications of our findings and suggest areas for future research.

中学教师经常在积极管理学生行为方面挣扎。然而，表扬与谴责比率 (PRR) 很少受到研究关注。小学研究的 PRR 与任务和亲社会行为的改善呈正相关，但对中学最佳 PRR 的研究有限。我们在全班级功能相关干预团队中学 (CW-FIT MS) 的随机对照试验的背景下进行了这项研究，以分离干预的主要组成部分之一 PRR 的影响。在控制干预后，我们检查了 28 个中学课堂中 PRR 对 (a) 全班的任务行为，(b) 有情绪和行为障碍 (EBD) 风险的学生的任务行为的影响，(c) 有 EBD 风险的学生的破坏性行为。多元回归显示中学 PRR 与感兴趣的变量之间存在统计学上显着的线性关系：随着 PRR 的增加，整个班级的任务行为得到改善，有 EBD 风险的学生的任务行为和成绩增加，以及破坏性行为有 EBD 风险的学生减少。我们讨论了我们的发现的影响，并提出了未来研究的领域。