Esther Mertens

| 29 Study Protocol improving the communication of students increases their feelings of social safety, as they learn to show that they care about someone’s feelings, that they are open to others and can become closer to each other (Ykema, 2002). Therefore, we hypothesize that R&W decreases deviant communication and increases prosocial communication which improves students’ social safety. In sum, in this study we will examine the effectiveness of R&W in improving students’ socio-emotional adjustment and social safety. Moreover, we will examine what works for whom by studying characteristics of students, teachers and parents. Additionally, the working mechanisms of the intervention will be analyzed. Methods Design To study the effects of R&W an RCT design is implemented in the 7th Grade of preparatory vocational education level. Schools fromdifferent parts of The Netherlands are randomly assigned to one of three intervention groups or to the control group (Figure 1). In the ‘Light’ condition a core team of teachers is trained with the three-day training course to become certified R&W trainers and implement the R&W program. In the ‘Standard’ condition a core team is trained to become R&W trainers and the rest of the school-team that teaches 7th Grade students follows a three-day training to learn how they can support the R&W trainers of their school and how they can apply R&W in their regular classes. The ‘Plus’ condition is equal to the ‘Standard’ condition with the addition of a parent component. The parents watch a documentary of R&W, get an invitation to join a lesson in the school, receive weekly e-mails with information about the lesson of that week and are stimulated to act on this information, for instance by communicating about R&W or using R&W language. This will not only create a supporting environment within the school, but also in students’ homes. In the control condition students receive CAU; i.e., current school policy to enhance socio-emotional adjustment and social safety of students. Students receive R&W for two years. The intervention is implemented during physical education classes by (mostly) physical education teachers who followed the three-day training. After successfully terminating this training, these teachers are certified R&W trainers. Socio-emotional adjustment (i.e., psychosocial wellbeing, sexual autonomy, and resilience), social safety (i.e., perceived social security in the classroom, aggression, and bullying), and mediators (i.e., self-control, self-reflection, self-esteem, and emotion regulation) will be assessed at multiple measurement points: Prior, during and after R&W in the first and second year and at follow-up. These concepts are assessed with online questionnaires completed by students, parents, 2