Bullying and victimization among majority and minority students: The role of peers’ ethnic perceptions

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the associations between self-reported and victim-reported bullying and two dimensions of ethnicity (self-identification and ethnic perceptions) among non-Roma majority and Roma minority Hungarian secondary school students. Results of the meta-analysis of exponential random graph models for 12 classes (347 students, 4 schools) show that both self-declared Roma and non-Roma students are more likely to report that they bully peers they perceive as Roma compared to peers they perceive as non-Roma. This is after controlling for gender, socio-economic status, and structural characteristics of the bullying networks. Similar associations have not been found, however, analysing victims’ reports.