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Article

Psychological adjustment of ethnically victimized adolescents: Do teachers’ responses to ethnic victimization incidents matter?

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Pages 848-864 | Received 18 May 2020, Accepted 12 Jan 2021, Published online: 28 Jan 2021
 

ABSTRACT

The present study examined how teachers respond to ethnic-victimization, and whether teachers’ responses buffer the effect of such aversive encounters on immigrant youth’s psychological adjustment. The sample included youth of immigrant background residing in Sweden (N = 423; Mage = 13.19, SD = .51; 44% girls), and their head class teachers. Cluster analysis revealed three subgroups of teachers based on their responses to ethnic victimization: (1) high in enlisting parents; (2) high in initiating discussions with other teachers; (3) high in multiple forms of strategies (i.e., authority-based interventions, comforting and supporting the victim, contacting parents, and initiating discussions with other teachers). The effects of ethnic victimization on youth’s depressive symptoms and self-esteem were significantly lower when teachers used multiple forms of strategies than when teachers used collaborative actions or enlisted parents. The findings highlight the importance of approaching ethnic victimization as a multi-dimensional phenomenon, thereby accessing multiple actors so as better to combat aversive effects on the victim.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the The Swedish Research Council (VR) [2015-01057].