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Diversity protects: The role of school and classroom racial/ethnic diversity on the experience of peer victimization during the middle school years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2023

Sandra Graham Open the ORCID record for Sandra Graham [Opens in a new window]  and
Leslie Echols
Sandra Graham*
Affiliation:
Department of Education, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Leslie Echols
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Missouri State University, Springfield, MO, USA
*
Corresponding author: Sandra Graham; Email: shgraham@ucla.edu
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Abstract

The effects of school and classroom racial/ethnic diversity on peer victimization, self-blame, and perceived school safety were examined in a racially/ethnically diverse sample of students followed over the three years of middle school. Sixth grade students (N = 5,991, 52% female; M = 11.63 years) were recruited from 26 urban middle schools that systematically varied in racial/ethnic diversity. Based on student self-report, the sample was 31.6% Latino/Mexican, 19.6% White, 17.4%, Multiethnic/Biracial, 13% East/Southeast Asian, 10.9% Black, and 6.9% Other very small racial/ethnic groups. Each school had a structural diversity score based on the number and size of racial/ethnic groups enrolled. Using a novel method based on course schedules and class rosters, each student’s individual exposure to diversity in their classes was assessed to capture dynamic diversity. Latent growth modeling showed that structural school diversity and dynamic classroom diversity were both related to less victimization at the start of middle school and a decrease over time. Dynamic classroom diversity buffered the associations between victimization and self-blame and between victimization and perceiving school as unsafe. Dynamic classroom diversity was more protective than structural school diversity. Implications for practice, intervention and policies to promote school racial/ethnic diversity were discussed.

Keywords

victimizationstructural school racial/ethnic diversitydynamic classroom racial/ethnic diversityself-blameschool safety
Type
Special Issue Article
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 35 , Issue 5: Special Issue: Resilience in Development: Pathways to Multisystem Integration , December 2023 , pp. 2516 - 2532
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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