Peer victimization in multicultural schools in Spain and England

Abstract

Most surveys of bullying and school violence have not addressed the issue of aggression or social exclusion related to the ethnic, cultural or racial background of the recipient. The limited number of studies in this area tend to focus on whether children from different cultural groups are more or less likely to be victimized by peers overall, reporting no significant differences between cultural groups in terms of levels of victimization or bullying others. This study aimed to expand on the previous literature in a number of ways. Pupils from a variety of cultural backgrounds in two countries, England and Spain, were surveyed about their perceptions and experiences of seven types of victimization (three were explicitly related to the cultural background of the recipient). Pupils were disapproving of victimization, more so for cultural victimization. Pupils from cultural minority groups were more likely than those from cultural majority groups to report experiencing victimization based on their cultural background (name calling and social exclusion). Pupils reported being upset or angry as a result of the victimization. They were most likely to report the reason for cultural victimization as “being different”. The findings are discussed in terms of the need for schools to address the issue of cultural victimization.