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)

References:

Black, S. (2003). An ongoing evaluation of the bullying prevention program in Philadelphia schools: Student survey and student observation data. Paper presented at Centers for Disease Control’s Safety in Numbers Conference, Atlanta, GA.

Limber, S. P. (2004b). Implementation of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program: Lessons Learned from the Field. In D. Espelage & S. Swearer (Eds.) Bullying in American Schools: A Social-Ecological Perspective on Prevention and Intervention (pp. 351-363). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Olweus, D. (1991). Bully/victim problems among schoolchildren: Basic facts and effects of a school based intervention program. In D. J. Pepler & K. H. Rubin (Eds.), The development and treatment of childhood aggression (pp. 411-448). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Olweus, D. (1993). Bullying at school: What we know and what we can do. Cambridge: Blackwell.

Olweus, D. (2004). The Olweus Bullying Prevention Programme: Design and implementation issues and a new national initiative in Norway. In P. K. Smith, D. Pepler, & K. Rigby (Eds.), Bullying in schools: How successful can interventions be? (pp. 13-36). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Olweus, D., Limber, S. P., & Mihalic, S. (1999). The Bullying Prevention Program: Blueprints for Violence Prevention, Vol. 10. Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence: Boulder, CO.