Peer victimization in youth from immigrant and non-immigrant US families

Abstract

The phenomenology of peer victimization in youth from immigrant and non-immigrant US families was investigated in the current study. Specifically, differences in how youth were victimized, their responses to being victimized, and how peer bystanders responded to peer aggression incidents involving youth from these respective groups were investigated. Data were collected from two subsets of youth involved in a national research project. Results indicate that youth from immigrant families are more likely than their non-immigrant peers to report being victimized by physical aggression and to be victimized because of issues related to their race, religion, and family income. In addition, youth from immigrant families were more likely to report that their own responses to peer aggression were less likely to lead to positive outcomes and that peer bystander interventions did not benefit them as much as these interventions benefited their non-immigrant peers. Lastly, a concerning number of youth from immigrant families reported that both their own and bystander responses to peer aggression actually resulted in negative outcomes for them.

Bullying Victimization Among School-Aged Immigrant Youth in the United States

“…These findings are similar to other studies examining immigrant youth and bullying victimization in other countries [21, 26] and in the U.S. [29]. Notably, immigrant youth were more likely to experience bullying related to religious or racial factors.…”

“…Moreover, little research has specifically focused on immigrant youth in the U.S., as much of the research is from other countries with different social and political contexts. Findings from a study using a U.S. sample indicate that a greater proportion of immigrant youth were more likely to report being victimized than their non-immigrant peers, and to be victimized due to race, religion and family income [29]. However, one of the major shortcomings of this investigation was that it was purely descriptive (i.e., bivariate cross tabulations) and statistical analyses did not control for the effects of potentially important confounds such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, grade level and family affluence.…”

Applying a Community Violence Framework to Understand the Impact of Immigration Enforcement Threat on Latino Children

“…Latino children are exposed to multiple forms of discrimination and microaggression. Interpersonal discrimination is manifested through verbal abuse in the form of microinsults (e.g., questioning parent's legal status and nativity), microassaults (e.g., derogatory comments, stereotyping, teasing, name-calling, and threatening), and physical attacks (Ayón & Philbin, 2017;Córdova & Cervantes, 2010;Romero, Gonzalez, & Smith, 2015;Sulkowski, Bauman, Wright, Nixon, & Davis, 2014). Substantial evidence links discrimination to poor health outcomes for Latino children and youth (Ayón, Marsiglia, & Parsai, 2010;Potochnick, Perreira, & Fuligni, 2012;Sirin et al, 2015).…”

Ethnic-Cultural Bullying Versus Personal Bullying: Specificity and Measurement of Discriminatory Aggression and Victimization Among Adolescents

“…In recent years, some studies have shown that the members of minority ethnic-cultural groups are more likely to be involved in bullying than the members of majority groups, as either aggressors (Tippett et al, 2013; Tolsma et al, 2013), victims (Strohmeier et al, 2011; Stefanek et al, 2012; Goldweber et al, 2013; Sulkowski et al, 2014; Llorent et al, 2016) or as bully/victims (Goldweber et al, 2013). In contrast, other studies conclude that there are no significant differences when comparing ethnic-cultural minorities with the majority with regards to being a victim of bullying (Durkin et al, 2012; Rodríguez-Hidalgo et al, 2014; Vitoroulis and Vaillancourt, 2015).…”