This evaluation of the effectiveness and sustainability of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP) built on a previous evaluation of this program by continuing the implementation of the OBPP in two schools that were already receiving the program while implementing the OBPP in a third school that served as the control school.
The OBPP is a comprehensive school-based program designed to prevent youth violence by improving school climate. Although the OBPP has been implemented in hundreds of schools across the United States, few studies have evaluated its impact on U.S. schools, particularly schools in urban areas that serve high percentages of minority adolescents from under-resourced communities. The current project built on an evaluation of the OBPP completed as part of a CDC-funded Academic Center of Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention (VCU-ACE Project). The current evaluation collected data from 2,755 students (78 percent African American and 52 percent female) at the three schools across the 8 years of the project. Analyses of time4-series data using multilevel modeling indicated intervention effects on several key outcomes, including significant decreases in teacher-reported relational, physical, and verbal aggression and relational victimization. There were also significant decreases in student-reported relational aggression and cyber aggression. This emerged from the third year of the evaluation through the completion of the 8-year evaluation. Students also reported reductions in physical, verbal, and relational victimization, with reductions in cyber victimization emerging in the second year of intervention. 11 tables and 10 references