Bullying and affiliation: A study of peer groups in native and immigrant adolescents in Norway

This study (1) investigated the extent to which native Norwegian and immigrant girls and boys bully others and (2) examined peer groups to find out with whom pupils affiliate with when bullying others. Furthermore, the study explored whether immigrant boys, more than native Norwegian boys, were carrying out bullying together with others. To identify bullies, self-assessments, nominations by co-bullies and nominations by victims were used. Social cognitive mapping (SCM) was used to identify peer groups. Peer groups were classified according to number of bullies and non-bullies in the group. The sample comprised 97 native Norwegian adolescents (55 girls, 42 boys) and 59 immigrant adolescents (34 girls, 25 boys) attending grades 8, 9 and 10. Configural frequency analyses showed that immigrant boys were less often identified as non-bullies but more often identified as bullies than expected by chance. On the contrary, immigrant girls were more often identified as non-bullies but less often identified as bullies than expected by chance. In addition, immigrant boys were overrepresented in bullying groups and immigrant girls were overrepresented in zero bullying groups. Furthermore, more immigrant boys than one would expect were bullying together with others, and more Norwegian girls that one would expect were bullying alone. Implications for bullying prevention programmes in schools are discussed. Keywords: AffiliationBullyingImmigrantsPeer groups Acknowledgments We are very grateful to the school with all its pupils who participated in this study and to C. Salmivalli for her helpful comments on drafts of this paper. Notes 1The largest immigrant group in the sample was from Pakistan (N = 35), there were also several adolescents from African countries, e.g., Somalia (N = 11), and also some from Arabic countries (N = 5), Vietnam (N = 3), Turkey (N = 3), and Kosovo (N = 2). 2We call it bullying or hassling when one or more pupils (together) are unfriendly or unpleasant to a pupil who cannot defend himself or herself easily. This could include kicking, hitting, or shoving the pupil. It is also bullying when pupils are teased or when pupils are shut out from the others. 3In the original scale measuring ethnic versus native peer contact, spend free time with was used instead of bully together with. Also, pupils from other countries (a) was divided into ethnic and other ethnic members. National members were the term used according to (b). 4 Non bullying groups according to Farmer et al., Citation2002. We changed the label of this group type as we find the term 'Less' easier to distinguish from 'Zero' than the term 'Non'. We also feel that 'Less' describes the real character of the group more precisely. 5For application of the Lehmacher's test the expected frequency, e, must not be <0.5.