Perceived ethnic victimization and psychological well-being in preadolescents

Abstract

This study focused on the perceived ethnic victimization and psychological well-being of Turkisch and Maroccan preadolescents (age 8-13) in The Netherlands. Although there is ample proof that ethnic discrimination can harm the psychological well-being of ethnic minority group members, our aim was to try to reconcile perspectives that apparently argue otherwise. By making a distinction between the real-life victimization experiences of ethnic minority children and the perceived ethnic nature of those experiences, we studied their relation to two different diminsions of psychological well-being: self-esteem and emotional-problems. Also, we looked at the moderating role that ethnic identification played on these different relations. Results showed that both components: victimization and perceiving it ethnic in nature; were independently related to more emotional problems. However, the perceived ethnic nature of children's peer victimization experiences was unrelated to self-esteem and even appeared to diminish the negative impact of peer victimization on that respective. No moderating effect of ethnic idetification was founding. Our findings contribute to the field of study by evidencing the self-protective function to perceiving prejudice in a real life setting.