Interreligious Bullying and Academic Achievement Among Muslim and Non-Muslim Early Adolescents in Germany

Abstract

Previous research has consistently found that pupils who are victims of bullying are at higher risk of academic underachievement. This study investigates whether the link between bullying victimization and academic achievement might be stronger when bullying occurs between school kids with a different religious affiliation, and in particular when the victim is a Muslim pupil who is being bullied by a non-Muslims peer. We use entropy balancing matching method in conjunction with multilevel regression analysis among 2320 students (1836 non-Muslim and 484 Muslim pupils) in 181 German school classes (CILS4EU data) collected between 2010 and 2011 to study how bullying victimization during the school year is related to the academic achievement of the bullied student at the end of the school year. Our findings show that interreligious bullying victimization is negatively linked to the victim’s academic achievement when the victim is a Muslim being bullied by a non-Muslim.