Adolescent preventive health and team-games-tournaments: five decades of evidence for an empirically based paradigm

The problematic behaviors of teenagers and the subsequent negative consequences are extensive and well documented: unwanted pregnancy, substance abuse, violent behavior, depression, and social and psychological consequences of unemployment. In this article, the authors review an approach that uses a cooperative learning, empirically based intervention that employs peers as teachers. This intervention of choice is Teams-Games-Tournaments (TGT), a paradigm backed by five decades of empirical support. The application of TGT in preventive health programs incorporates elements in common with other prevention programs that are based on a public health orientation and constitute the essential components of health education, that is, skills training and practice in applying skills. The TGT intervention supports the idea that children and adolescents from various socioeconomic classes, between the ages of 8 and 18 and in classrooms or groups ranging in size from 4 to 17 members, can work together for one another. TGT has been applied successfully in such diverse areas as adolescent development, sexuality education, psychoactive substance abuse education, anger control, coping with depression and suicide, nutrition, comprehensive employment preparation, and family intervention. This article reviews the extensive research on TGT using examples of successful projects in substance abuse, violence, and nutrition. Issues are raised that relate to the implementation of preventive health strategies for adolescents, including cognitive aspects, social and family networks, and intervention components.