White Bully vs. Black Victim or Black Bully vs. White Victim? Ethnicity and Severity of Behaviour in Italian Children

The impact of ethnicity on the evaluation of severity of behaviour (physical and verbal bullying, isolation, and name-calling) was investigated among Italian children aged 6-9. Measures: 4 vignettes reproducing typical bullying actions and 4 photos of target children (White/Black boys; White/Black girls) for the choice of preferred and rejected photos were used. Children were divided in three sub-groups each exposed to one out of three different conditions with varying ethnic belonging of bully and victim: Gr-I (White bully-White victim); Gr-II (Black bully-White victim); Gr-III (White bully-Black victim). As a result, Gr-III considered the actions bullying, both physical and verbal, and name-calling more serious than Gr-I and Gr-II.