User:SueThomas101

Olweus Bullying Prevention Program
This material has been taken by permission from Olweus, Dan and Susan P. Limber. Olweus Bullying Prevention Program: Teacher Guide, Hazelden Publishing, copyright 2007.

What Is the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program?

The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP) is the most researched and best-known bullying prevention program available today. With over thirty-five years of research and successful implementation all over the world, OBPP is a whole-school program that has been proven to prevent or reduce bullying throughout a school setting.

OBPP is used at the school, classroom, and individual levels and includes methods to reach out to parents and the community for involvement and support. School administrators, teachers, and other staff are primarily responsible for introducing and implementing the program. These efforts are designed to improve peer relations and make the school a safer and more positive place for students to learn and develop.

What Are the Goals of OBPP?

The goals of the program are

· To reduce existing bullying problems among students

· To prevent the development of new bullying problems

· To achieve better peer relations at school

For Whom is OBPP Designed?

OBPP is designed for students in elementary, middle, and junior high schools (students age five to fifteen years old). All students participate in most aspects of the program, while students identified as bullying others, or as targets of bullying, receive additional individualized interventions. With some adaptation, the program can also be used in high schools, although research has not measured the program’s effectiveness beyond tenth grade.

What Are the Components of the Program?

OBPP is not a classroom curriculum. It is a whole-school, systems-change program at four different levels. Here are the program components for each of these levels.

Schoolwide

· Establish a Bullying Prevention Coordinating Committee

· Conduct committee and staff trainings

· Administer the Olweus Bullying Questionnaire schoolwide

· Hold staff discussion group meetings

· Introduce the school rules against bullying

· Review and refine the school’s supervisory system

· Hold a school kick-off event to launch the program

· Involve parents

In the Classroom

· Post and enforce schoolwide rules against bullying

· Hold regular class meetings

· Hold meetings with students’ parents

For Individuals Who Bully or Who Are Bullied

· Supervise students’ activities

· Ensure that all staff intervene on the spot when bullying occurs

· Hold meetings with students involved in bullying

· Hold meetings with parents of involved students

· Develop individual intervention plans for involved students

In the Community

· Involve community members on the Bullying Prevention Coordinating Committee

· Develop partnerships with community members to support your school’s program

· Help to spread anti-bullying messages and principles of best practice in the community

What Are the Effects of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program?

OBPP has been more thoroughly evaluated than any other bullying prevention/reduction program so far. Six large-scale evaluations, involving more than 40,000 students, have documented results such as the following:

· Average reductions by 20 to 70 percent in student reports of being bullied and bullying others. Peer and teacher ratings of bullying problems have yielded roughly similar results

· Marked reductions in student reports of general antisocial behavior, such as vandalism, fighting, theft, and truancy

· Clear improvements in classroom social climate, as reflected in students’ reports of improved order and discipline, more positive social relationships, and more positive attitudes toward schoolwork and school

For students in grades 4-7, most of the positive results can be seen after only eight months of intervention work, given reasonably good implementation of the program. For students in grades 8-10, it may take somewhat more time, maybe two years, to achieve equally good results.

Is the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program a Nationally Recognized Program?

The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program has received recognition from a number of organizations including the following:

· Blueprints Model Program, Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, University of Colorado at Boulder

· Model Program, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

· Effective Program, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice

· Level 2 Program, U.S. Department of Education

Note: “Level 2” programs have been scientifically demonstrated to prevent delinquency or reduce risk and enhance protection for delinquency and other child and youth problems using either an experimental or quasi-experimental research design, with a comparison group.

For More Information On the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program

Visit olweus.org or call 1-800-328-9000.

The names “Olweus” and “Olweus Bullying Prevention Program” are protected as trademarks, and may not be used in any way that involves self-promotion or the sale of products without the written permission of Hazelden as the publisher. © 2007, Hazelden Publishing