Authors
Background
In studies analysing ethnic bullying and victimization, participants’ ethnicity has been defined in different ways, primarily depending on the geographical site of the study (Basilici et al., 2022). These variations in the operationalization of ethnicity may have affected the findings concerning risk factors for ethnic bullying victimization, both at the individual and structural levels. Thus, the present study aims to use an operationalization of both social/legal (i.e., citizenship status) and perceptual (i.e., others’ perception of diversity) aspects to analyse the impact of ethnic diversity on ethnic bullying and victimization, considering both individual and classroom-level associations.
Method
Participants were 960 students (52% females; Mage=15.19; SD=.60) from 58 classrooms belonging to 13 schools. Multilevel model was used to assess the association between individual-level and classroom-level variables and to examine whether classroom-level characteristics influenced the associations between individual-level predictors and outcomes.
Results
Results showed the role of the social/legal aspects on ethnic victimization at both individual and classroom levels. Not having Italian citizenship seems to act as a risk factor for ethnic victimization over and above the perceptual differences. No effects of both types of diversity have been found on bullying at the individual level nor the classroom level.
Conclusion
This study showed the relevant role that citizenship status plays in ethnic victimization at both individual and class levels. Specifically, special attention should be paid to ethnically mixed classrooms by promoting programmes aimed to counteract ethnic bullying victimization. Furthermore, in the Italian context, the citizenship status seems to play an important role, even though the percentage of students with an immigrant background is low compared to other countries (IOM, 2019). As the society becomes increasingly multiethnic, it is therefore important to monitor ethnic bullying behaviours in multiethnic classes.
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