Evidence-based approach to bullying prevention shows promising results in multi-year U.S. study
By Michael Staton
Photography by Christmas City Studio and Craig Mahaffey ’98
Orefield Middle School in Pennsylvania adds a new mural to a wall in the school each year. The visual theme changes, but the featured words — respect, compassion, courage, welcoming — largely stay the same.
Whether it’s Scrabble-themed or made up of student signatures, the wall showcases concepts and virtues that can have a marked effect on bullying behavior in schools.
Administrators and teachers know that communicating these concepts should not stop at displaying the desired behavior on a wall. According to Matthew Carlson, school psychologist at Orefield, it takes a whole-school approach that addresses both school culture and bullying behavior.
This evidence-backed approach to combat bullying is pulled directly from the playbook Carlson studied when he trained under Clemson faculty involved with the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, a comprehensive K-12 program that started in Norway.
Clemson faculty and the Olweus program have enjoyed a longstanding research relationship, and they recently concluded a major study of bullying prevention efforts in U.S. schools. Evaluating nearly 70,000 students across 210 elementary, middle and high schools in Pennsylvania over two years, the study revealed significant, sustained positive impacts.