Personal peer victimization and ethnic peer victimization: Findings on their co-occurrence, predictors, and outcomes from a latent profile analysis. (January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Arens, A. Katrin; Visser, Linda
• Is Part Of: Child abuse & neglect. Volume 99(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-01
• Subjects: Peer victimization -- Ethnic peer victimization -- Depression -- Anxiety -- Self-Esteem -- Peer self-concept; Child abuse -- Periodicals; 362.76
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.104250
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0145-2134

Abstract

Abstract: Background: Findings on whether immigrant students suffer from higher levels of peer victimization have been inconsistent, perhaps due to a blend of measures for personal and ethnic peer victimization. Objective: In this study, we investigated personal and ethnic peer victimization using latent profile analyses. The profiles were related to various predictor and outcome variables. Participants and Setting: The sample consisted of N = 4367 German elementary school students attending grades 3 and 4. Methods: The students responded to eight items addressing personal peer victimization and one item addressing ethnic peer victimization. Results: The findings indicated a three-profile solution. In Profile 1, students experienced a combination of personal and ethnic peer victimization; Profile 2 contained students without any victimization experiences; in Profile 3, students experienced personal peer victimization only. Relative to native German-speaking students, non-native German-speaking students had a higher chance to be classified in Profile 1 compared to Profiles 2 and 3. Both profiles of peer victimization (i.e., Profiles 1 and 3) were associated with negative outcomes including higher levels of different types of anxiety and depression, and lower levels of self-esteem and peer self-concept. Conclusions: Student subgroups of different patterns of peer victimization were found, whereby ethnic peer victimization was blended with personal peer victimization in one subgroup, and personal peer victimization was experienced in a pure form in another subgroup. The two victimization subgroups did not differ with regard to outcomes, but were differentially predicted by students' native language.