Impetus for the intervention study, early stages of planning, and funding

In 1994 the Institute for Families in Society at the University of South Carolina received a grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (within the US Department of Justice) to undertake a 3-year project to conduct research related to violence among rural youth. A critical component of this grant was the implementation and evaluation of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Programme in rural schools in South Carolina. Faculty at the Institute for Families in Society were familiar with the success of the programme in Norwegian schools, from reading published summaries of the programme (Olweus, 1991; 1993) and from discussions with Professor Olweus. Recognising that no other violence-prevention programme to date had produced such impressive results, faculty were anxious to test the programme in an American setting.

Early planning and preparation for the implementation of the programme involved the hiring of staff, extensive consultation with Professor Olweus, and the selection and preparation of participating schools. With the receipt of the Justice Department grant, the Institute hired a project director and part-time faculty, staff, and graduate students to support the implementation of the project. The principal university project team consisted of the principal investigator (Melton), a three-quarter time project director (Limber), three part-time PhD-level faculty at the Institute and at the Medical University of South Carolina who were responsible for providing ongoing technical assistance to schools, a part-time consultant for the project's evaluation, and several graduate research assistants to collect, input, and collate data from participating schools.