Relations between Race/Ethnicity and Peer Relationships during Early Adolescence

I investigated if race/ethnicity was associated with self- and peer-reported victimization and aggression in a sample of 5th through 8th graders (N = 383, 51% males) from two schools in which Hispanic/Latino students were the ethnic-racial majority. Self-reported victimization did not differ between races. In contrast, White students often had higher peer-reported victimization relative to Hispanic and Multi-racial students. Few significant associations were found for aggression. There was some, albeit inconsistent, support for the idea that power imbalance based on race/ethnicity is shifted by numbers. In the future, researchers should conduct studies aimed verifying this notion and that are tailored toward answering questions of mechanism.