Perceptions of Middle School Students and Parents on the Effectiveness of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program

Abstract

Bullying has been recognized as a significant problem in adolescents. The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP) has been the most successful and widely used program in schools to reduce the incidence of bullying. This study aimed to investigate the perceptions of middle school students and parents on the effectiveness of OBPP. Online surveys for students and parents were developed using a Likert-type scale. The results indicate that students and parents believe OBPP is effective in increasing knowledge of bullying and how to effectively deal with it. Parents do not perceive that incidents of bullying have decreased since implementation of OBPP. This parent perception is inconsistent with student belief that with OBPP bullying happens less. The results suggest that further research is needed on the perceptions of the effectiveness of OBPP.