Bullying and Harassment: Experiences of Minority and Immigrant Youth

by
Debra Pepler, York University

Jennifer Connolly, York University
Wendy Craig, Queen’s University

Bullying and harassment are pervasive among late elementary and high school students. In a recent survey of students in Grades 5 to 8, 15% of students report that they have been bullied on a regular basis in the current school year (Pepler et al., 1999). Moreover, 40% of students also reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment (McMaster, Connolly, Craig, & Pepler, 1997). Consistent with previous reports that immigrant and ethnic minority youth may be targets for discrimination, we found that 14% of elementary school children reported that they had been bullied because of their race (Pepler, et al., 1999). The psychosocial impact of these experiences among majority youth have been documented, but little is known about the experiences of minority and immigrant youth. In the CERIS-supported research, we examined bullying and harassment among immigrant and ethnic minority youth in late elementary and early high school years.

The three principal investigators on this research project were Dr. Debra Pepler and Dr. Jennifer Connolly from York University, and Dr. Wendy Craig from Queen’s University. We were joined on the project by four graduate students in Clinical-Developmental Psychology including Don Kent, Loren McMaster, Carla Smith, and Ali Taradash. There were also over 10 undergraduate students who assisted with data collection and collation.

Measures. The measures administered to high school students in the present study included are listed below. A subset of these measures was administered to the elementary school students.

To examine the experiences of bullying and harassment among minority and immigrant youth, we conducted two sets of analyses. First, we compared the experiences of students from ethnic minority groups to those of students within the ethnic majority (European-Canadian). Secondly, we compared the experiences of students who were not born in Canada (0^th generation), students who were born in Canada but whose parents were not born in Canada (1^st generation), and students who were born in Canada and whose parents were born in Canada (2^nd generation). The preliminary results are summarized below.

We asked students to indicate whether they considered themselves a bully, victim, bully-victim or none of these categories. There were not significant differences in the frequencies of self-nominations for children from the majority and minority ethnic groups. The following table summarizes the percentage of students who identified with these groupings.

Table 1. Bully and Victim Status according to Ethnic Majority or Minority Status

There were also no significant differences in the frequencies of self-nominations for children from the three immigrant status groups. The following Table 2 summarizes the percentage of students who identified with these groupings.

Table 2. Bully and Victim Status according to Immigrant Status

Have you been bullied by a student from another ethnic group because of your ethnicity?

In response to the question asking whether they had been bullied by a student from another ethnic group because of their ethnicity, 17% of all elementary students and 17% of all high school students reported that they had experienced ethnic victimization. The data for minority/majority groups and for the three generational categories are presented in Table 3. Chi-square analyses indicated that elementary students from a minority group were significantly more likely to report ethnic victimization than those from the majority group. Although the rate for minority high school students was also higher than that for majority high school students, the difference did not reach significance.

When reports of ethnic victimization were compared for immigrant status (i.e., 0^th, 1^st, and 2^nd generation), Chi-squared analyses indicated that high school students who were not born in Canada experienced significantly more victimization related to their ethnic background than those born in Canada. Although more elementary students born outside of Canada also experienced ethnic victimization than those born in Canada, the difference was not significant.

Among the high school students, boys were more likely than girls to report that they had experienced ethnic victimization: 22% of high school boys and 12% of high school girls reported that they had been victimized for their ethnicity. Among the elementary school students, 20% of boys and 16% of girls reported that they had been victimized for their ethnicity.

Table 3.

Have you been bullied by a student from another ethnic group because of your ethnicity?

Have you bullied a student from another ethnic group because of his/her ethnicity?

In response to the question asking whether they had bullied a student from another ethnic group because of his/her ethnicity, 10% of all elementary students and 9% of all high school students acknowledged that they had perpetrated ethnic bullying. The data for minority/majority groups and for the three generational categories are presented in Table 2. Chi-square analyses indicated that the rates of ethnic bullying were approximately the same for both the elementary and high school minority and majority groups.

When reports of ethnic bullying were compared for immigrant status (i.e., 0^th, 1^st, and 2^nd generation), Chi-squared analyses indicated that high school students whose parents were not born in Canada (0^th and 1^st generation) were more likely to acknowledge bullying others on ethnic grounds than the 2^nd generation students. There was not a significant difference in the distributions of bullying by immigration status for elementary school students.

Boys were more likely than girls to acknowledge that they had perpetrated ethnic bullying. In elementary school, 14% of boys and 7% of girls reported bullying others because of their ethnicity.

Table 4.

Have you bullied a student from another ethnic group because of his/her ethnicity?

We were interested in examining the behaviour problems associated with bullying and victimization experiences related to ethnicity. Our previous research with elementary school children indicates that the children who are bullies and victims experience a range of externalizing (e.g., aggression, delinquency) and internalizing (e.g., depression, anxiety) problems. We were interested to learn whether there would be similar difficulties associated with the experiences of ethnically-based bullying and victimization. The first table below provides the numbers of boys and girls in elementary and high school indicating their experiences with ethnic bullying and victimization. Note that the comparison students are those who did not indicate either perpetrating ethnic bullying or experiencing ethnic victimization.

Table 5.

Breakdown of Boys and Girls who indicated Ethnically-Based Bullying Perpetration or Victimization (Percentages in Brackets)

Given that externalizing behaviour problems are highly related to bullying in general, we expected that those students who were bullies and bully-victims would be more likely to experience these acting-out types of problems compared to students who were victims or not involved at all in ethnically-based bullying. There was a main effect for group for both the elementary sample, F (3, 312) = 5.49, p<.001 and the high school sample, F (3, 698) = 14.67, p<.001. There was no main effect for gender and no group by gender interaction. The means for the elementary and high school boys and girls according to group are presented in Table 6.

In elementary and high school, the students who report engaging in ethnically-based bullying, either as a bully alone, or as a bully-victim have the highest externalizing behaviour problem scores. This indicates that these students not only engage in ethnically-based harassment of other students, but also a range of other acting out problems.

Table 7.

Externalizing Behaviour Problem Mean Scores (square root transformed) for Boys and Girls by Ethnically-Based Bullying Perpetration and or Victimization

Children who experience harassment at the hands of bullies experience a range of internalizing behaviour problems, such as anxiety and depression. We expected that there might be similar problems associated with being the victim of ethnically-related bullying. There was a main effect for group for both the elementary sample, F (3, 286) = 5.23, p<.002 and a trend for the high school sample, F (3, 628) = 2.37, p=.07. In general, the victims and bully-victims reported more internalizing problems than bullies and comparison students. There was a main effect for gender for both the elementary and high school samples, with girls reporting more internalizing behaviour problems than boys. The means for the elementary and high school boys and girls according to group are presented in Table 8.

Table 8.

Internalizing Behaviour Problem Mean Scores (square root transformed) for Boys and Girls by Ethnically-Based Bullying Perpetration and or Victimization

The findings from the CERIS-funded study confirm the experience of ethnically-based bullying among elementary and high school students. Seventeen percent of the students in this study had experienced ethnic victimization. Elementary students from minority ethnic groups were more likely to experience ethnic victimization than students from the majority group. The pattern in high school was similar but did not reach significance. A similar pattern was evident for immigration status: High school students not born in Canada reported more ethnically based victimization than those born in Canada. The trend for elementary students was similar but not significant. These data indicate that we should be concerned about the reception of minority and immigrant students in schools, as they may be harassed and excluded by other students for their differences. Although in elementary school, there were not differences between the minority and majority students in reports of perpetrating bullying; the high school students of immigrant parents were more likely to report bullying others than the second generation students. This pattern suggests that as students mature they may become increasingly frustrated and hostile, particularly if they experience bullying as a function of their family background. The students’ reports of behaviour problems indicate significant concern for the students who are engaged as bullies, victims, and bully-victims in experiences associated with ethnically-based bullying.

Craig, W. M. Bullying and victimization among minority youth in Canada. Paper presented at the Canadian Society for Educational Research. Ottawa, May 1998.

Pepler, D. and Smith, C. Bullying and Victimization: Experiences of Immigrant and Minority Youth. Colloquium sponsored by CERIS - York (Joint Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement) and LaMarsh Centre for Research on Violence and Conflict Resolution, February 1999.

Pepler, D., Smith, C., Craig, W., and Connolly, J. Bullying and Victimization: Experiences of Immigrant and Minority Youth.

Smith, C., Pepler, D., Craig, W., and Connolly, J. Psycho-social Adjustment of Immigrant and Minority Youth.

Loren McMaster – Peer influences in sexual harassment among high school students. Dissertation for doctorate in Clinical-Developmental Psychology.

Carla Smith – Psychosocial adjustment of immigrant and minority youth. Minor area paper for doctorate in Clinical-Developmental Psychology.

Julia Grant – Differing forms of social isolation. Honours undergraduate thesis in Psychology

Biographical Sketch

Dr. Pepler has served on Canadian federal & provincial grant review panels. She is currently a member of a National Institute of Mental Health committee to synthesize understanding of the peer influences in the development of antisocial behaviour problems.