The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program

The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program

In 1983, three teen students in Norway committed suicide, likely due to bullying and harassment at their school; in response to this tragedy, The Norwegian Ministry of Education started a campaign to reduce bullying in schools, and from these efforts, the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program was founded (Limber 71). The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP) is a structured system designed to help schools reduce their level of bullying and achieve better peer relations between their students (Limber 71). The OBPP is based on four key principles which adults in the school environment must follow in order to make the program successful. Teachers must show warmth and interest in their students; set firm limits to unacceptable behavior; use consistent, nonphysical nonhostile negative consequences for violation of rules; and act as authorities and positive role models (Limber 71). These key concepts drive the program and are the foundation, which is a very important part of the Olweus structure: it starts with the teachers and administrators. If the adults in the school are able to set these examples and make it an effort to display these principles daily, the students will follow and make the school a safer place for everyone.

In the OBPP there are four levels of program components; the school, the classroom, the individual, and the community (Limber 71). The first level, the school, is focused on establishing and maintaining the Bullying Prevention Coordinating Committee (BPCC), administering training of the OBPP to all faculty, and administering the Olweus Bullying Questionnaire (OBQ) (Limber 73-75). The BPCC is a group of around 8-15 members and consists of administrators, teachers, nurses, other school personnel, and sometimes student representatives. The main goals of the BPCC are to “develop a plan to implement the OBPP in their school; communicate the plan to school staff, students and parents; ensuring the OBPP is coordinated with other relevant prevention and intervention efforts at the school; obtaining feedback from all constituents about the program’s implementation and representing the program to the broader community.” (Limber 73-74) Essentially, the BPCC is the head of the operation and is in charge of establishing and maintaining the program. Without fervent, dedicated work by the BPCC, the program is destined to fail within the school. The next task of the BPCC is to administer training to all school faculty. This is provided in a full-day session before the OBPP is implemented into the school; refresher courses must also be provided to new faculty or to delve deeper into specific topics with returning faculty (Limber 74). The final endeavor the BPCC is in charge of is administering the OBQ throughout the school; this has proven to be a vital part of the success of the program. “The OBQ is an anonymous self-report measure that is administered to students in Grades 3–12 prior to implementation of the OBPP and at regular intervals (ideally yearly) thereafter. The questionnaire assesses students’ experiences with and attitudes about bullying.” (Limber 74) After the test has been administered, a detailed report of findings is produced, which provides school personnel with information about the students’ responses. The schools then use this data to “help raise awareness about bullying, assist the BPCC to make specific plans to implement the OBPP, and assess change over time on key outcome variables.” (Limber 75) The questionnaire is vital to the program because it gives everyone involved in the program an in-depth look into what their students are going through and whether or not how they are implementing the program is having an effect on their students.

The main component of the classroom level of the OBPP is weekly meetings held in the classroom, which are designed to build cohesion among the class (Limber 76). The meetings provide an opportunity for all students in the class too, “discuss rules about bullying, help students understand the roles that they all have in preventing bullying, and provide an opportunity for students to problem-solve ways to address bullying, through role-play and other strategies” (Limber 76). According to a study done by the program founder, Dan Olweus, classes that hold weekly discussions have a greater reduction in bullying, as well as those that use role-playing to explore bullying issues (Limber 76).