Ethnicity, Peer Harassment, and Adjustment in Middle School:

In an urban middle school, African American (n = 116), Latino (n = 118), and students from four other ethnic groups (labeled multiethnic, n = 172) completed nomination procedures that identified classmates who were perceived as aggressive or as victims of peer harassment. Peer acceptance and rejection also were measured by nomination procedures, and participants reported their self-perceived loneliness, social anxiety, and global self-esteem. Compared to Latino and multiethnic respondents, more African American students were nominated as aggressive, and fewer were nominated as victims of harassment. However, African American harassment victims reported more loneliness and lower self-esteem than did harassment victims in the other ethnic groups, and they were more rejected by peers. The data were interpreted as evidence that deviations from normative perceptions of a person’s group (i.e., being a victim of harassment when the perceived group norm is aggressiveness) are particularly detrimental to psychological and social adjustment.