The effect of NoTrap! anti-bullying program on ethnic victimization: when the peer-educators' immigrant status matters

• In Event: Developing and Evaluating  Interventions to Reduce Prejudice and Promote Inclusion in Ethnic Diversity Contexts

Abstract

Introduction
Nowadays, an increasing number of children and adolescents living in many European countries have an immigrant background. Since ethnicity is a recognizable characteristic that often becomes the target of aggression, these youth are at higher risk of peer victimisation than their native mates (Pottie et al. 2015). While it seems crucial to design programs to prevent it, at the moment, no intervention has been proposed to specifically target ethnic bullying. According to contact theory (Allport, 1954), prejudice may be decreased in groups characterized by equal status between minority and majority groups, shared goals, intergroup cooperation, and authorities’ support. Peer-led approaches in interventions assume all these conditions and seems especially suitable.
The present study aims to analyse whether NoTrap! anti-bullying program, an evidence-based peer-led intervention (Zambuto et al. 2020), may also be effective in counteracting ethnic bullying and ethnic victimization under specific circumstances. We hypothesize that the NoTrap! program may be more effective in reducing ethnic bullying when it involves students with an immigrant background as peer educators.
Methods
1570 students participated in the study that involves 24 control classes (N=476) and 50 experimental classes (N=1094). Within the last group we identified, in a following step, two conditions on the bases of the peer educators’ recruitment: 30 classes in which all peer educators were Italian (Condition A, N=661); and 20 classes in which at least one had an immigrant background (Condition B, N=433);
Independently from the condition, students filled the same questionnaire to assess ethnic bullying and victimisation (Palladino et al. 2020), in the same period.
Results
Using linear mixed-effects models we found a significant interaction group*time for ethnic victimisation (F(2, 1170) = 4.19; p =.01): the program was effective in reducing victimisation only in Condition B while, in the control group and in Condition A ethnic victimisation was stable (see Figure 1) over time. Specifically, the magnitude of the effect in the Condition B corresponds to a significant OR of 1.369 (CI [1.039-1.803]) when compared to control group, and to a significant OR of 1.540 (CI [1.196-1.982]) when compared to Condition A. No significant effects have been found for ethnic bullying.
Discussion
The findings partially confirmed our hypothesis based on the contact theory (Allport, 1954). Indeed, only in Condition B, were students with and without an immigrant background worked together to reach a common goal, cooperatively, with teachers’ support and having equal status, there was an effect of the program on ethnic victimization. The last criterion was missing in Condition A since no students with an immigrant background were involved in the program as peer educators.
On the other hand, no effects on ethnic bullying have been found. This is in line both with the activities proposed in the program, more focussed to empower victims and bystanders than act directly on bullies, and on the complexity of prejudice and these dynamics.
Future implementations of the program might include components specifically designed to target ethnic bullying dynamics and better understand the impact of these components on the phenomenon under consideration.

Authors

• Benedetta Emanuela Palladino, University of Florence
  Presenting Author

• Federica Stefanelli, University of Florence
  Non-Presenting Author

• Valentina Zambuto, University of Florence
  Non-Presenting Author

• Annalaura Nocentini, University of Florence
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ersilia Menesini, University of Florence
  Non-Presenting Author