Violence in schools: The relationship between classroom heterogeneity and mobbing-incidents

Abstract

This study reviews characteristics of mobbing incidents in the federal states of Hesse and Saxony, using data collected by the HBSC-Study in 2006. It investigates to what extend, beyond the students’ immigration background, other individual variables, as well as classroom and school variables may have an impact on mobbing incidents.
Approximately one third of the students indicate having sometimes been victim of mobbing, and approximately one out of four students reports having already committed this kind of offence. Results reveal that gender, age, as well as the immigrant ratio of the student’s class are relevant factors to mobbing commitment. The immigration background also has an impact but only in Hesse. Students with low socioeconomic status have a higher risk of being victims of mobbing. Results reveal that classroom ethnical diversity has a positive effect in Hesse but ambiguous effects in Saxony.