OLWEUS BULLYING PREVENTION

Contact Name: Sue Limber

College/Department: Institute on Family & Neighborhood Life
Address: 158 Poole Ag Center, Clemson, SC 29634

Phone/email: 864-656-6320/ slimber@clemson.edu

Name of Program: The Olweus Prevention Program

Age Group of program participants: K – 8th grade

Is this program __X___ in school, or ___ non-formal

Brief description of program:
Please include: program purpose(s); goals and objectives; internal and external partners; intended outcomes; accomplishments; and funding source(s)

PROGRAM PURPOSES: The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program is a comprehensive, school-based program designed to reduce and prevent bully/victim problems among students in elementary and middle schools. Core components of the program are implemented at the school-wide level, classroom level, and individual level.

GOALS:

1. reduce existing bully/victim problems among school children;
2. prevent the development of new bully/victim problems; and
3. achieve better peer relations at the school.

PARTNERS: The program includes faculty and staff at the Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life at Clemson university, in partnership with the program’s developer, Dan Olweus (University of Bergen) and colleagues at the University of South Carolina, Wellesley College, and Family-Child Resources, Inc.

INTENDED OUTCOMES:

1. significant reductions in bullying and bully victimization;
2. significant increases in the social climate of the school; and
3. significant decreases in related antisocial behaviors.

OUTCOMES: Evidence from the U.S. and abroad have found significant reductions in self-reported bullying and significant decreases in self-reports of other antisocial behaviors. Research from Europe has found significant improvements in the social climate of the school.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: The program has been implemented in several hundred schools in the U.S. and around the world. It has been identified as one of 11 national Blueprint Programs for Violence Prevention and as an Exemplary Program by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.

FUNDING SOURCES: Federal funders of the program have included the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (U.S. Department of Justice), the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, and the Center for Mental Health Services (of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). Other sources of funding have included Anderson School District Five, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety, and the Pennsylvania Office of Safe Schools.