NCJ Number
228897
Journal
Journal of Early Adolescence Volume: 29 Issue: 6 Dated: December 2009 Pages: 898-923
Date Published
December 2009
Length
26 pages
Annotation
Levels of bullying others, victimization, and aggressiveness was compared in native Norwegian and immigrant adolescents living in Norway.
Abstract
Results of the study indicate that immigrant adolescents bully their peers more often compared with their native Norwegian counterparts. In addition, there was reason to suspect that the underlying mechanisms of bullying others are different between native Norwegian and immigrant boys. The analyses showed that proactive power-related aggressiveness was strongly related with bullying behavior in native Norwegian boys but not in immigrant boys. Proactive-affiliated aggressiveness was very strongly related with bullying behavior in immigrant boys but only weakly related to native Norwegian boys. Further research is suggested and the practical importance of the findings for prevention of targeting immigrant adolescents is discussed. In an attempt to find out whether immigrant students are more or less at risk of bullying others or being victimized and to better understand the processes underlying these negative behaviors, this study, consisting of 2,938 native Norwegian adolescents and 189 immigrant adolescents, compared the prevalence rates of bullying others, victimization, and aggressiveness in the sample of native Norwegians and in the sample of immigrant adolescents living in Norway, and explored differences between the two groups with regard to reactive and proactive aggressiveness as underlying mechanisms for bullying behavior. Tables, figures, notes, and references