Meccanismi di rischio associati al bullismo discriminatorio etnico

[Autom. eng. transl.] Introduction. Ethnic discriminatory bullying is an increasingly widespread phenomenon and presumably is characterized by specific risk factors and psychological mechanisms, which must be approached in interventions evidence-based prevention and contrast of the phenomenon. The purpose of this systematic review is to understand if and which of these mechanisms, at (1) individual, (2) dyadic and (3) peer group level (e.g. roles) and context scholastic, have been identified from studies. Method. The PRISMA protocol was used to analyze and identify scientific articles within three databases: Scopus, Psycinfo and PubMed. The keywords used to identify the articles refer to three areas: bullying and victimization, ethnic groups, population) and associated mechanisms. Articles published in scientific journals and with a sample of adolescent students (11 - 18 years) were selected. 434 papers and two independent researchers were identified analyzed the abstracts and the complete texts of the articles. After discarding duplicate and non-related articles, 46 scientific articles were considered. Results. All the articles that have analyzed mechanisms associated with ethnic bullying have mainly focused on the role of bully and victim. In the literature there are no studies on defenders and only one study on bystanders. At the individual level, the scientific literature agrees that prejudice is associated with ethnic bullying. There is no univocal evidence with respect to other individual characteristics (ethnicity, sex, age). At the level of dyad it emerged that there are no specifics dyadic relational mechanisms. There are no characteristics associated with the victims and the perpetrator of bullying usually appears more handsome on a physical level, belonging to the majority ethnic group, of male sex. With respect to group mechanisms and related to the school context, it emerged that some dimensions of the school climate are more associated with ethnic bullying, such as support from teachers and from peers. Furthermore, some researchers have found that prejudice can be socialized by the context and consequently in contexts where stereotypes and prejudices are more frequent there are also more episodes of bullying. ethnic. Finally, it is not clear, because it has not been sufficiently investigated, whether as with traditional bullying also the phenomenon of ethnic bullying has a group nature, with the assumption of other roles in addition to that of bully and victim. Discussion. This systematic review highlighted some specific mechanisms associated with ethnic bullying that may be useful in designing effective interventions, but at the same time highlighted that there are some gaps in the literature (e.g. whether there is a dyadic and / or group nature) to be investigated with subsequent research.