The Potential of Anti-Bullying Efforts to Prevent Academic Failure and Youth Crime. A Case Using the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP).

The effectiveness of bullying prevention programs has led to expectations that these programs could have effects beyond their primary goals. By reducing the number of victims and perpetrators and the harm experienced by those affected, programs may have longer-term effects on individual school performance and prevent crime. In this paper, we use Norwegian register data to study the long-term impact of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP) on academic performance, high school dropout, and youth crime for the average student, which we call population-level effects. The OBPP program is widely acknowledged as one of the most successful programs reducing school-level bullying; yet, using a difference-in-difference design, no statistically significant population-level effects of the OBPP were found on any of the long-term outcomes in this study. When studied at the population level, as in the current project, the base rate prevalence of bullying is a major explanatory factor for these results. Earlier studies have shown that OBPP reduces bullying prevalence by 30-50%. This decrease translates into absolute reductions in bullying victimization and perpetration at the population level of "only" four and two percentage points, respectively. Our results suggest the average causal effects of school bullying involvement are too small to translate this reduction in bullying into a sizeable population-level impact on students' long-term outcomes. However, a limited potential of anti-bullying programs to prevent population-level adversity can very well be compatible with substantial program effects for individual bullies and victims. Further, our results do not speak to the main objective of anti-bullying programs of limiting childhood abuse and safeguarding children's human rights.

Bullying Involvement in Adolescence: Implications for Sleep, Mental Health, and Academic Outcomes.

Adolescents' involvement in bullying is associated with both sleep and mental health problems, but the nature of this association remains unclear; further, its association with academic outcomes has received little attention. Thus, the aims of the current study were to (a) determine whether involvement in bullying as a victim, bully, or bully-victim was associated with greater sleep and mental health problems and (b) explore the potential mediating effect of sleep and mental health problems on the association between bullying and academic outcomes. A large 2012 population-based study in Hordaland County, Norway, surveyed 10,220 adolescents (16-19 years; 54% girls) about bullying involvement using the revised version of the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire, detailed sleep assessment, and mental health questionnaires. Academic outcomes were obtained from official administrative registries. 1.7% of the adolescents (n = 156) reported being victims of bullying, 1.0% (n = 92) reported being a bully, and 0.5% (n = 50) reported being a bully-victim. All categories of bullying involvement had higher rates of mental health problems compared with adolescents not involved in bullying. Victims reported more symptoms of anxiety and depression, whereas bullies reported higher rates of conduct problems. Adolescents in all bullying categories also reported significantly shorter sleep duration and higher prevalence of insomnia as well as lower grade point average (GPA) compared with adolescents not involved; however, school absence was not associated with bullying involvement. Bullying involvement and GPA showed complete mediation for bullies and bully-victims and partial mediation for victims through sleep duration, conduct problems, and symptoms of depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Bullying is strongly associated with mental health and sleep problems, in addition to lower academic performance. Findings support the importance of addressing bullying involvement during this important developmental period.

Long-term school-level effects of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP).

In agreement with two predictions, this somewhat unusual study documented that 70 elementary schools (A-schools) with continued and repeated use of the Olweus Bullying Questionnaire (OBQ) in a four-year follow-up period of 2007-2010, two to eight years after original implementation of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP), had a clearly more favorable long-term development in terms of being-bullied problems, as measured with a completely independent data source, the National Pupil Survey than 102 comparable schools (B-schools) that had not conducted any OBQ-surveys in the same period. The odds of being bullied for students in a Norwegian average elementary school were also almost 40% higher than for students who attended a school with continued use of the OBQ, and very likely, other components of the program. Several alternative explanations of the findings were explored and found wanting. Results suggested that A-schools with continued use had changed their "school culture" for the better with regard to awareness, preparedness and competence in handling and preventing bullying. This form of 'organizational learning' has major consequences in that new groups of students will benefit from such a school environment. It was generally concluded - in spite of a highly stable average of the level of bullying problems in Norway - that it is fully possible to substantially reduce such problems not only in one-year evaluations, as has been amply documented before, but also in the long term, up to eight years after original implementation, with a program such as the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program.

A pilot study on the use of acupuncture or pelvic floor muscle training for mixed urinary incontinence.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the feasibility and acceptability of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) acupuncture and pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) in reducing symptoms and bothersomeness in women with mixed urinary incontinence (MUI); and to estimate the sample size for a full scale trial. METHODS: Thirty-four women with MUI were randomly assigned to either 12 sessions of TCM acupuncture, 12 sessions of PFMT, or to a waiting list control group. Outcome measures included an assessment of interest to participate in the trial, identification of successful recruitment strategies, the appropriateness of eligibility criteria, and compliance with treatment. Clinical outcomes were assessed at baseline and 12 weeks, and included the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Urinary Incontinence-Short Form (ICIQ-UI SF), expectations of treatment effect, and adverse events. RESULTS: Recruitment was feasible and randomisation worked adequately by means of SurveyMonkey. SurveyMonkey does not permit stratification by ICIQ-UI SF baseline score. Fourteen of 22 women found the treatment options acceptable. The dropout rate was high, especially in the control group (6/12). Outcome forms were completed by 20 of 34 women. The median (IQR) changes of the ICIQ-UI SF scores in the acupuncture, physiotherapy, and waiting list group were 5.5 (2.3 to 6.8), 1.0 (-3.0 to 4.5), and 1.5 (-1.5 to 3.0), respectively, suggesting the need for a full scale trial. CONCLUSIONS: Women with MUI were willing to participate in this study. There is a need for adjusting eligibility criteria. A sample size of 129 women, 43 in three arms, is required. No major adverse events occurred.

Bullies and victims at school: are they the same pupils?

BACKGROUND: The reported prevalence of bully-victims and aggressive/provocative victims varies quite considerably in previous research, and only a few studies have reported prevalence rates across grades. There is also a lack of detailed analyses of the extent to which victims are also bullies, and bullies are also victims. AIMS: To study the prevalence of male and female bully-victims across grade/age and to establish the degree of overlap or relative size of the bully-victim group by relating them to all victims, all bullies and all involved students. SAMPLES: Participants in Study 1 were 5,171 pupils in grades 5-9 from 37 schools. Study 2 comprised 12,983 pupils in grades 4-10 from 66 schools. METHODS: The Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire was administered to the pupils in their ordinary classrooms. RESULTS: The prevalence of bully-victims was low and mainly declined across grades. There were far more boys than girls in the bully-victim group. Bully-victims resembled victims only (pure victims) in terms of age-trends and bullies only (pure bullies) in terms of sex composition. The overlap of bully-victims with the total victim group was fairly small (10-20%) in all grades. In primary grades, bully-victims constituted about 30-50% of the total bully group, whereas in higher grades these proportions were considerably lower. CONCLUSION: Our analyses and overview of previous research suggest that the bully-victim group is small, and that the large variations across studies are mainly due to differences in choice of cutoff point. Bully-victims should generally be seen and treated statistically as a distinct subgroup. The relatively larger proportion of bully-victims in lower grades should be explored further.