The key aim of the present research was to study the “functionality” of two global variables in the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire and to examine the appropriateness of different cutoff points of these variables for prevalence estimation. Several empirical and conceptual analyses strongly attested to the functionality of the two selected variables in terms of construct validity and selected measurement properties. Similarly, a number of analyses indicated that (having been bullied/having bullied other students) “2 or 3 times a month” was a reasonable and useful lower‐bound cutoff point. With this cutoff point, “involved” students, victims, and bullies differed very markedly and in clearly different ways from “non‐involved” students in conceptually related variables. Prevalence estimates derived in this way can be conveniently obtained, have a reasonably well‐defined meaning, can be easily understood by users, and can be reproduced unambiguously by different researchers/administrators and at different times. An important background for the article is the fact that several common methods, including peer nominations, are not well suited for prevalence estimation. Prevalence data for victims, bullies, and bully‐victims are also presented. All data were derived from the New Bergen Project Against Bullying, comprising a sample of 5,171 students from 37 schools in the town community of Bergen, Norway. At the time of the data collection, the spring of 1997, the 2,544 girls and 2,627 boys were in grades 5 through 9, with modal ages of 11 through 15 years. Aggr. Behav. 29:239–268, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

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.

Purpose: 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: 1) determine whether involvement in bullying as a victim, bully, or bully-victim was associated with greater sleep and mental health problems; and 2) explore the potential mediating effect of sleep and mental health problems on the association between bullying and academic outcomes. Methods: 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. Results: 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 to adolescents not involved in bullying. Victims reported more symptoms of anxiety and depression, whereas bullies reported higher rates of conduct problems. All bullying categories also reported significantly shorter sleep duration and higher prevalence of insomnia as well as lower grade point average (GPA) compared to 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 ADHD. Conclusions: 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.

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.

No abstract