- While ethnic Norwegian boys often bully because they want to have power over their victims, immigrant boys bully because have a need for affiliation, says assistant professor Hildegunn Fandrem at the Center for Behavioral Research at the University of Stavanger, Norway.
According to Fandrem, research into bullying has so far not been interested in the reasons different groups may have for bullying.
- Earlier research shows that the best explanation for bullying is that the bully wants to gain power over the victim and affiliate with the other individuals who bully, she says and adds:
- When we separate the immigrant boys from the whole group, my data show that power motivated aggression is not an adequate explanation for bullying among this group.
Fandrem is currently looking at social and emotional problems among youths with a multicultural background in her doctoral project.
- There are two main categories of aggressive behavior. Some individuals become aggressive from anger and frustration when they don’t have their way, for example when they lose a game, Fandrem says.
- This is reactive aggressiveness. This form of aggressiveness does not particularly explain bullying. The form of aggressiveness which best explains bullying is called proactive aggressiveness. This means that aggression can be used to obtain power. The bully is stimulated by seeing others become frightened, Fandrem says, and adds that aggression is also used to achieve acceptance by a group or to connect with others.
- A common enemy may forge strong ties. The bullies may experience “better” friendship when they leave somebody out in the cold or when they commit actions they know are wrong, she says.
To find out who the immigrant boys want to affiliate with, Fandrem has started a new investigation. She is anxious to find out whether the immigrant boys’ motivation for bullying is part of an integration or a separation strategy.
- When we have the answer to the question who the young immigrants want to belong to, we will know more about what we have to do in order to give them good experiences of belonging. We may then compensate for and prevent the way they resort to unwanted strategies like bullying, she says.
Silje Stangeland | alfa
Further information:
http://saf.uis.no/news/article6158-2775.html
Illinois researchers researchers find tweeting in cities lower than expected
21.02.2018 | University of Illinois College of Engineering
Polluted air may pollute our morality
08.02.2018 | Association for Psychological Science
University of Connecticut researchers have created a biodegradable composite made of silk fibers that can be used to repair broken load-bearing bones without the complications sometimes presented by other materials.
Repairing major load-bearing bones such as those in the leg can be a long and uncomfortable process.
Study published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces is the outcome of an international effort that included teams from Dresden and Berlin in Germany, and the US.
Scientists at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) together with colleagues from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and the University of Virginia...
Novel highly efficient and brilliant gamma-ray source: Based on model calculations, physicists of the Max PIanck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg propose a novel method for an efficient high-brilliance gamma-ray source. A giant collimated gamma-ray pulse is generated from the interaction of a dense ultra-relativistic electron beam with a thin solid conductor. Energetic gamma-rays are copiously produced as the electron beam splits into filaments while propagating across the conductor. The resulting gamma-ray energy and flux enable novel experiments in nuclear and fundamental physics.
The typical wavelength of light interacting with an object of the microcosm scales with the size of this object. For atoms, this ranges from visible light to...
Stable joint cartilage can be produced from adult stem cells originating from bone marrow. This is made possible by inducing specific molecular processes occurring during embryonic cartilage formation, as researchers from the University and University Hospital of Basel report in the scientific journal PNAS.
Certain mesenchymal stem/stromal cells from the bone marrow of adults are considered extremely promising for skeletal tissue regeneration. These adult stem...
In the fight against cancer, scientists are developing new drugs to hit tumor cells at so far unused weak points. Such a “sore spot” is the protein complex...
Anzeige
Anzeige
Invitation to the upcoming "Current Topics in Bioinformatics: Big Data in Genomics and Medicine"
13.04.2018 | Event News
Unique scope of UV LED technologies and applications presented in Berlin: ICULTA-2018
12.04.2018 | Event News
IWOLIA: A conference bringing together German Industrie 4.0 and French Industrie du Futur
09.04.2018 | Event News
Magnetic nano-imaging on a table top
20.04.2018 | Physics and Astronomy
Start of work for the world's largest electric truck
20.04.2018 | Interdisciplinary Research
Atoms may hum a tune from grand cosmic symphony
20.04.2018 | Physics and Astronomy