Social Participation of German Students with and without a Migration Background

Social participation is an important factor for students’ socio-emotional/academic development. The literature on the topic discusses four domains in this regard: friendships, interactions, social acceptance, and self-perception of social inclusion. It shows that marginalized groups (e.g., students with behavioral problems/learning deficiencies/physical disabilities) are experience difficulties in those domains. Little, however, is known about the effect of a migration background (one of the most commonly marginalized groups) in this context. Therefore, self-ratings and peer ratings of 818 fourth graders (148 with a migration background, defined by their first learned language not being German) were assessed. The results of the ANOVA indicate that students with a migration background show a decreased level of friendships, interactions, and social acceptance. Gender effects on self-perceived social inclusion were also found. This suggests that social participation is a rather complex concept, which is also impaired for marginalized groups due to social factors like a migration background.