Olweus Bullying Prevention Program

PROGRAM CONTENT

Core components of the program are implemented at the school, classroom, and individual levels.

School-level components include—

• Formation of a Bullying Prevention Coordinating Committee
• Distribution of an anonymous student questionnaire assessing the nature and prevalence of bullying
• Training for committee members and staff
• Development of a coordinated system of supervision
• Adoption of school-wide rules against bullying
• Development of appropriate positive and negative consequences for students' behavior
• Holding staff discussion groups related to the program
• Involvement of parents

Classroom-level components include—

• Reinforcement of school-wide rules against bullying
• Holding regular classroom meetings with students to increase knowledge and empathy
• Informational meetings with parents

Individual-level components include—

• Interventions with children who bully
• Interventions with children who are bullied
• Discussions with parents of involved students

EVIDENCE OF EFFECTIVENESS

Research Basis for the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program

The first evaluation of the program took place in the early-to-mid 1980s and involved approximately 2,500 children in grades 4-7 from 42 elementary and junior high schools in Bergen, Norway (equivalent to grades 5-8 in the U.S.). Using a quasi-experimental (age-cohorts) design, Olweus (1991; Olweus, Limber, & Mihalic, 1999) found:

• substantial reductions (50% or more for most comparisons by students’ age and grade) in self-reported bullying and bully victimization.
• significant reductions in self-reported vandalism, fighting, theft, alcohol use, and truancy.
• significant improvements in the social climate of the classroom (as reflected in students’ reports of increased satisfaction with school life and school work, improved order and discipline at school, and more positive social relationships).
• a dosage-response relationship at the classroom level, such that those classrooms that implemented essential components of the program saw greater reductions in bully/victim problems.

The New Bergen Project Against Bullying took place between 1997 and 1998 and involved 3,200 students in grades 5-7 and 9, from 14 intervention and 16 comparison schools in Bergen, Norway. Olweus and colleagues (Olweus, 2004; Olweus et al., 1999) found:

• Reductions in the implementation schools of bully/victim problems of 21%-38%.
• No significant changes in comparison schools in reports of being bullied and a 35% increase in the level of bullying other students.

The Oslo Project Against Bullying (which began in 1999) involved 2,300 students in grades 5-7 and 9. Within one year, among 5-7th graders, Olweus (Olweus, 2004) found:

• Reductions in self-reports of bully victimization of 42% (33% for girls and 48% for boys).
• Reductions in self-reported bullying others of 52% (64% for girls and 45% for boys).

The first systematic evaluation of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program in the United States (Limber et al., 2004) was conducted in the mid-1990s, involving 18 middle schools in South Carolina. After one year of implementation, researchers observed:

• Large, significant decreases in boys’ and girls’ reports of bullying others
• Large, significant decreases in boys’ reports of being bullied and in boys’ reports of social isolation.

An evaluation of the Olweus program in 12 elementary schools in the Philadelphia area (Black, 2003) revealed that among those schools that had implemented the program with at least moderate fidelity:

• There were significant reductions in self-reported bullying and victimization.
• There were significant decreases in adults’ observations of bullying (in the cafeteria and on the playground).

RECOGNITION
The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program has been recognized by:

• The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention & the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence (University of Colorado), as one of only 11 Blueprints for Violence Prevention.
• The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as an Exemplary Program.
• Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, as a proven program for prevention of bullying.
• U.S. Department of Education, in its televised show, "News Parents Can Use."

BRIEF INFORMATION ABOUT DAN OLWEUS

Released September 2003

Dan Olweus, who was born in Sweden, took his doctoral degree at the University of Umeå, Sweden, in 1969. From 1970 up to 1995 he was professor of psychology at the University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway. Since 1996 he has been research professor of psychology, affiliated with the Research Center for Health Promotion (HEMIL) at the the same university. For nine years (1962-70), he was director of the Erica Foundation, Stockholm, Sweden, a training institute for clinical child psychologists.

For approximately 30 years, Dan Olweus has been involved in research and intervention work in the area of bully/victim problems among school children and youth. Already in 1970, he started a large-scale project which is now generally regarded as the first scientific study of bully/victim problems in the world. (Published as a book in Scandinavia in 1973, and in 1978 in the USA under the title Aggression in the schools: Bullies and whipping boys.) In the 1980s, he conducted the first systematic intervention study against bullying in the world which documented a number of quite positive effects of his "Bullying Prevention Program" (e.g., Olweus, 1991, 1992, 1994; Olweus & Limber, 1999). Towards the end of the century, Dan Olweus and his research and intervention group at the University of Bergen have conducted several new large-scale intervention projects, again gaining good results. One of these studies forms part of an international project on bully/victim problems comprising researchers from Japan, England, the Netherlands, the USA, and Norway.

Olweus is generally recognized as a pioneer and Founding Father of research on bully/victim problems and as a world leading expert in this area both by the research community and by the society at large (e.g., described with terms such as 'the world's leading authority' by the British newspaper "The Times" and several other international newspapers). The book Bullying at school: What we know and what we can do (Olweus, 1993) has been published in 15 different languages. The leading position of Olweus is also documented by the fact that he is, and has been for a number of years, the most cited Norwegian/Scandinavian researcher in psychology and education according to several independent analyses of citation frequency (according to the Social Citation Index and the Science Citation Index).

Olweus has received a number of awards and recognitions for his reseaerch and intervention work. For his general research on aggression, Olweus received the award for "outstanding aggression research" by the International Society for Research on Aggression (ISRA), which consists of some 500 leading aggression/violence researchers from all over the world. For the period of 1995-96, Olweus was elected president of the same Society. In year 2000, the “Spirit of Crazy Horse” award was conferred on him for “bringing courage to the discouraged" by the US Reclaiming Youth International organization, as an appreciation of his efforts to research and combat bullying. Recently, he was given an award for “outstanding publication and dissemination activity” by the University of Bergen, and in 2002, he received the “Nordic Public Health Prize” (“Nordiske folkehelseprisen”) by the Nordic Minister Council (Nordiska Ministerrådet) for his important achievements with regard to public health in the Nordic countries. In 2003, Dan Olweus was given the award for Distinguished Contributions to Public Policy for Children by the international (mostly US) research organization Society for Research in Child Development.

As another indication of the international recognition and impact of his work, Olweus was invited to spend a year at the prestigious Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS), Stanford, CA, USA (which he did in 1986/87). Dan Olweus has given invited and keynote addresses about his bully/victim and aggression research at a number of international congresses or meetings including conferences of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), of the International Society for Research on Aggression (ISRA), and at the International World Congress of Psychology. He has given invited lectures at about 30 US universities, including Stanford, Harvard, Yale, and Berkeley and a number of English universities including Oxford, Cambridge, and London.

Olweus's intervention program against bullying has gained both international and national recognition. Among other things, the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program was recently selected as one of 10 "model programs" (only 10 out of more than 500 programs could be approved) to be used in a national violence prevention initiative in the USA (in 1999-), supported by the US Department of Justice (OJJDP; see Olweus & Limber, 1999). One of the criteria for the selection of the model programs was that the program had been exposed to rigorous, scientific evaluation (with positive and long-term results). The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program is the only model program of non-US origin, and the only one directed at bully/victim problems in school (only three of the Blueprint programs are school based). The program has also been recognized as a Model Program by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP). Furthermore, the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program was the only program against various forms of “problem behavior in school” that could be recommended for continued use by a Norwegian expert committee evaluating 55 different programs in current use in Norwegian schools (in year 2000). The Olweus Program is now being implemented on a large-scale basis in Norwegian elementary and junior high schools, in a government-initiated national initiative.

Olweus's research and intervention work has played a key role in the partly dramatic changes that have occurred in many countries (such as Norway, Sweden, England, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, Germany, Australia, and Japan) over the last 15-year period: from viewing (being exposed to) bullying as a natural part of school life and growing up to a pressing social issue which must be taken seriously and be systematically addressed by the schools/school authorities and society at large.

Publications:

Olweus, D. (1993). Bullying at school: What we know and what we can do. (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. The book can be ordered directly from: Marketing Department, Blackwells, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JF, United Kingdom, or from Blackwells, c/o AIDC, P.O.Box 20, Williston, VT 05495, USA, phone: 1-800-216-5222)

Olweus, D. (2001). Olweus’ core program against bullying and antisocial behavior: A teacher handbook. Reasearch Center for Health promotion (Hemil Center). Bergen, Norway.

Olweus, D., & Limber, S. (1999) Blueprints for violence prevention: Bullying Prevention Program. Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA. (Can be ordered from Institute for B.S., fax: 1-303-443-3297; see also www.colorado.edu/cspv/blueprints.

Implementation

Olweus Bullying Prevention Program will be implemented in all El Rancho Unified School District schools:

For additional information on this program contact: Lorraine Jimenez at ljimenez@erusd.k12.ca.us