The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program

Powhatan Public schools has implemented the Olweus bullying prevention program for grades k-8. The first step in the Olweus bullying prevention program is to recognizing the bullying. These included the definition of bullying being; aggressive behavior which involves unwanted negative action, involving patterns of behavior repeated over time, and an imbalance of power or strength. These are the three definitions used to recognize bullying behaviors. The Second part of the Olweus is understanding the types of bullying. According to this system there are nine way which a student can be bullied. The nine ways are; verbal, social exclusion or isolation, physical, lies or false rumors, damaging others things, threats, racial bullying, sexual bullying

Bullying is all over the world. Each year there is over 3.2 million victims being bullied. Approximately 160,000 teens skip school every day because of bullying.17% of American students report being bullied 2 to 3 times a month in a year. To many within a school semester. Since 2002, fighting behaviour has increased, especially in grades six to eight. Boys are more likely to start bullying because of being bullied in their past. Girls are most likely to cyberbully. Nearly 43% of kids have been bullied online. According to Gale, cyberbullying is the use of the Internet, smartphones, or other electronic communication devices to spread harmful or embarrassing information about another person, such as talking about people, telling other people’s

In the 21st century technology has led to a new form of bullying, cyber bullying (Dhariff & Hoff, 2007). Over the past 30 years bullying have incremented rapidly worldwide, affecting people of all ages. Whether it’s done via the internet or the traditional way, bullying has always being around, affecting more than 200 million children worldwide (Kandersteg Declaration Against Bullying in Children and Youth, 2007). According to a research study conducted by Juvonen & Gross (2008) and Patchin & Hinduja (2009), cyber bullying and bullying are often interdepended (Beran & Li, 2007; Willard, 2007b.). Recent studies on cyber bullying showed that in every 10 Australian kids who were bullied online, 84% of them were also bullied in school (No Bullying, 2014). Bullying is referred to the repeated verbal, social,

Bullying can be found almost everywhere; in homes, on the internet, and especially in schools. Students of lesser abilities or non-conformists can essentially be main targets; however, anyone is vulnerable to a bully’s wrath. Although the common lunch thief threat has been the general association with the word bully, that term has unfortunately evolved and become apart of the violent side of our culture today. All too often students feel the need to “disappear” or escape leading to destructive decisions such as suicide, substance abuse, or depression (Kowalski 6). Today the causes of bullying are involved with social differences such as sexual orientation, physical appearance, ethnicity, or insecurities. For the past few years bullying has gradually increased in the US, and of course worldwide because of the internet’s growing diverse locations and servers. Statistics show that “A total of 29.9% of the sample reported moderate or frequent involvement in bullying, as a bully (13.3%), one who was bullied (10.6%), or both (6.3%)” (NIH Public Access). Forms of bullying include through a computer screen also known as cyberbullying and through physical confrontation leading students to experience symptoms of depression which could also provoke deeper personal issues. Cyberbullying has come across society through social media sites as well as personal opinion. Children are now breaking the norm of traditional confrontation and dunking heads in toilets

As the most well-known anti-bullying program, the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP) seems to be an effective program (“Olweus Bullying Prevention Program: Scope And Sequence”). However the effectiveness of this program is uncertain in many countries except in Norway (Simmons). A study even found that OBPP had no effect in general in preventing bullying in American schools (Simmons). Moreover, huge resources are required since 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” (“Olweus Bullying Prevention Program: Scope And Sequence”). A school with limited staff and resources may find it hard to introduce and implement this whole-school program across several levels. Instead, “an on-the-ground, local approach with individual students rather than a broad , mandated program” should be recommended (Simmons). It is important to offer bullied students available and trusted channels to seek help from. From my experience, I was bullied once by a senior student in high school, and I felt embarrassed to talk to my parents about it. Parents should be encouraged to discuss the concept of bullying freely with their children, so that bullied kids do not feel afraid or embarrassed about reporting. Moreover, Students should know who and where to seek help from in school. For example, a teacher can be appointed to be the main contact person about reporting bullying. Furthermore, the program should consist of regular meetings and seminars that educate students, teachers and parents about the implementation of this

    One possible solution to help prevent bullying is to use classroom intervention programs. According to the article , “Bullying By Peers Has Effect Later In Life,” the author stated, “Programs such as Welcoming Schools,

Concentrated media attention to mass school shootings also shed the light at the bigger picture of students feeling unsafe and unprotected at schools. The research revealed that about 40 percent of the students go through humiliation or bullying in their school years despite school administration efforts to council bullies and victims (Dewey, 2013). Therefore there is a high demand for the anti-bullying program. Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP) is one of them and focused on creating anti-bullying support, which includes: work and counseling bullies; psychological support and coaching for the victims; special seminars and coaching for the teachers; education for the school administration; community events addressing the issue.

Cunningham and Whitten (2007) discussed the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, a whole-school prevention program widely implemented and researched. Encompassing the whole school, the program contains school-wide, classroom, and individualized components. The program’s objectives include increasing awareness and problem assessment, environmental/ school climate strategies, classroom-focused strategies, and individual interventions. Extensive research indicates positive results in decreasing bullying and victimization. The authors also mention the importance of program monitoring and assessment to ensure thorough and comprehensive implementation. Comprehensive approaches, like the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, are foundational to ensuring the protection and safety of students to facilitate academic, social, and career development.

First, there are many ways that we can stop bullying in schools so that students have a safe learning environment. According to Nobullying.com, 28% of students in grades 6-12 say they have experienced bullying or have felt bullied while at school. According to Nobully.com, as a result, 300,000 students are likely to avoid coming to school at some point to avoid a bully. Some of the negative consequences of bullying include long-term

Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, Friendly School Friendly Family Program, and the Social Skill Training intervention programs have resulted in a decrease in bullying reporting in schools that implements such high-level program. High intervention anti-bullying prevention program is a multifaceted program that incorporates the participation of adults that students have everyday contact and the mandatory participation of students on a classroom and individual level. Most researchers agree that effective prevention programs that focus on multiple domains are more effective than those that focus on only domain. (Sela-Shayovitz,2009,)

Researchers Merrell et al., 2008, J.D Smith et al., 2004: Vreeman & Carroll, 2007 have reviewed various research studies on school bullying intervention programs. J.D Smith and his colleagues (2004) comprised a research study across several countries and identified no significant program effects on measures of self-reported victimization and bullying. However, the team identified evidence of positive outcomes that coincide with a minimal number of bullying programs. Overall, Smith and his colleagues concluded, whole school bullying programs have resulted in a reduction of bullying in a number of the identified schools however; the results of the 14 identified schools across several countries are too inconsistent to grant the acceptance of these programs exclusively over other whole-school bullying

There are many interventions and techniques to combat bullying in school and outside of school. One of the ways to prevent bullying is to increase awareness of the bully and victim problem throughout the schools. Dan Olweus created a bully intervention program, which included the increase of awareness of the bully and victim problem and enhancing knowledge about it. Olweus said, “Use of the Bully/Victim Questionnaire for an anonymous survey is an important step in obtaining more specific knowledge about the frequency and nature of the problems in a particular school.”(Olweus, 1997) Schools can use this technique as a way to find out if a specific student or student population is at risk to being the bully or the targeted victims. This would

Bullying is not only limited to the real world, but also the online, virtual world, in a form known as ‘Cyber Bullying’."Cyber bullying" is when a child or teen is threatened, harassed, humiliated orembarrassed by another person using the Internet, mainly social medias, or mobile phones The application of the internet to the modern world has made it easy for people to harass others without even having to be face-to-face, and with the increase in technology, there is no doubt that cyber-bullying will increase. Because of this, I believe it’s important to educate people about cyber bullying because it will help stop it from happening. Doing that would encourage the victims to speak up for themselves and get help, and have the bullies think twice about their attempt to bully someone.

For such a long time, physical bullying has been the largest problem schools and parents had to face with their children, but now another form of bullying has arisen; cyber bullying. In society today, teens are drawn cell phones, laptops, and other technological advancements. Social media is a way for many teens and adolescents to interact with one another and share countless happenings of their personal lives. Cyber bullying occurs when individuals use the internet to send or comment cruel and unnecessary messages to another. In its various forms cyber bullying includes, indirect and direct harassment, posting inappropriate pictures, impersonating another being, or just being plain cruel. Although anyone can become a victim of cyber bullying, improper use of the internet can further induce harassment, due to the adolescents desire to use modern day technologies. The harassers could be classmates, online “friends’’, or anonymous users. One barrier that is difficult to overcome is determining who is responsible for the attacks online, because many bullies hide behind fake usernames or profiles to protect their real identity, which is commonly known as “hiding behind a screen”. (Bonanno 2013). The motives for a cyber-bully are never clear, some might say

Bullying is one of the biggest problems facing schools today, and with today’s technology it makes easier for children to be bullied at home as well as at school. Stopbullying.gov describes bullying as “unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance” and can include actions such as “making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose”. Bullying is an awful problem that several children are facing and adults should always be observant and try to prevent the bullying as soon as possible.