Moving Bullying Prevention into Secondary Settings

Introduction: School-based bullying is the most prevalent form of violence in the United States, involving 20-30% of students, daily. The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP), based in Norway, is an effective, evidence-based intervention originally researched and designed for implementation through tenth grade. However, the American school system includes 11th and 12th grade. Thus, the purpose of this pilot is to gauge the adaptability of OBPP in high schools. Methods: 8,016 students in grades nine through 12, from 39 school buildings throughout Pennsylvania, were surveyed before implementation of OBPP and one and two years after program implementation. Participants were asked to report their experiences of bullying at school using the Olweus Bullying Questionnaire (OBQ). Results: After three years of implementation in secondary schools, student reports of being bullied decreased by 9%, while the number of students participating in bullying decreased by 36.54%. Furthermore, the likelihood of teachers to intervene in acts of peer-abuse increased by 20%. These results are consistent with what is often seen in elementary and middle schools when OBPP is implemented Conclusion: Our initial findings indicate that implementation of OBPP is effective at the secondary level and reliable, based on our experiences with primary schools.