School ethnic composition and bullying in Canadian schools

Bullying in ethnically diverse schools varies as a function of the ethnic composition and degree of diversity in schools. Although Canada is highly multicultural, few researchers have focused on the role of context on ethnic majority and minority youths’ bullying involvement. In the present study, 11,649 European-Canadian/ethnic majority (77%) and non-European Canadian/ethnic minority (23%) students in Grade 4 to Grade 12 completed an online Safe Schools Survey on general, physical, verbal, social, and cyber bullying. Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) analyses indicated significant interactions between the proportion of non-European Canadian children in a school (Level 2) and individual ethnicity (Level 1) across most types of bullying victimization. Non-European Canadian students experienced less peer victimization in schools with higher proportions of non-European Canadian students, but ethnic composition was not related to European Canadian students’ peer victimization. No differences in bullying perpetration were found as a function of school ethnic composition across groups. Our findings suggest that ethnic composition in Canadian schools may not be strongly associated with bullying perpetration and that a higher representation of other ethnic minority peers may act as a buffer against peer victimization.