Olweus Bullying Survey Results: Comparing Multiple Administrations

Who is the intended audience?

Teachers and Administrators

What data is reported?

Total number of students surveyed, number and percentage of students responses by question and question group by gender and grade level per administration.

How is the data reported?

Please see the images and associated descriptions below.

Figure 1 is a horizontal bar chart that indicates the percentage and of number of students that report being bullied at each level of frequency. The chart also allows for two administrations to provide the ability to analyze change from administration 1 to administration 2.

Figure 2 is a horizontal bar chart that indicates the percentage and of number of students that report taking part in bullying at each level of frequency. The chart also allows for two administrations to provide the ability to analyze change from administration 1 to administration 2.

What Are Some General Cautions as You Look at Your Results?

Of course, when interpreting raw percentages of students it is important to keep in mind that if you have a small sample size of students, say less than 50 only a few students can dramatically change the percentages which can lead to misinterpretations of the results.  Additionally, with a small sample size percentages can paint a picture as extremely severe when in reality only a small of students may be involved.  In those cases, it best to use the student “count” and not percentages when interpreting the data.

When looking at the results for your school or district from year to year, be sure to compare changes with appropriate grade levels. For example, in such comparisons, you should compare the results for fifth graders in one year with the data for fifth graders in the next year. Or, if you want to consider possible changes for the whole school, you should compare results for participating grades the first year (e.g., grades 6-8) with students in the same grades the next year. Because of the developmental changes in students (e.g., being bullied tends to lessen as students get older), you should compare results at the same grade level or grade levels over consecutive years.

Possible Follow-Up

The two key questions about bullying provide important overall information about the levels of bullying problems in your school or district. If you would like to get a fuller and more detailed picture of the situation, we encourage you to consider using the complete Olweus Bullying Survey (OBQ). With the results from the complete OBQ, you will be able to answer a number of additional questions including the following: What forms of bullying are most prevalent in your school (verbal, physical, indirect/relational, digital)? How do these forms of bullying vary for boys and girls? How many (what proportion of) students in your school have been bullied for a long period of time? How many students are afraid of being bullied? Have bullied students told anyone about their experiences? If so, whom? What are the “hot spots” for bullying at your school? What are students’ attitudes toward bullying at school? How often do teachers or other adults at school intervene to stop bullying? How often do students intervene to stop bullying? How satisfied are students with school?

Furthermore, if you want to follow up the current survey with more systematic anti-bullying work, you may want to consider using the Brief Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP). OBPP is the most researched anti-bullying program in the world and has documented a number of positive effects (considerably reduced levels of bully/victim problems) in scientific evaluations of the program (e.g., Olweus & Limber, 2010; Limber, Olweus, Wang, & Breivik, 2016). OBPP was recently determined to be the best program in a large-scale, independent evaluation of all anti-bullying programs in the world conducted by prominent researchers from Cambridge University, U.K. (Ttofi & Farrington, 2009, 2011).

For more information about the OBQ or OBPP, see www.hazelden.org/illuminate.