A psychometric analysis of two measures of African American racial identity in a sample of professional adults

This dissertation is an investigation of the Cross Racial Identity Scale (CRIS; Vandiver, Cross, Worrell, & Fhagen-Smith, 2002) and the Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity (MIBI; Sellers, Shelton, Cooke, Chavous, Rowley, & Smith, 1997) in a sample of African American adult professionals (N=137). This study found the internal reliability of both scales to be good. The structural validity of the CRIS was supported in principal component analyses, as were the centrality, private regard, public regard, oppressed minority, and nationalist subscales of the MIBI. The predictive validity of both scales also held in this sample, in that each of the CRIS and the MIBI overall were significantly associated with self-esteem and racial socialization preferences. Specifically, the evaluative subscales of each scale (the preencounter miseducation and preencounter self-hatred subscales of the CRIS and the private regard subscale of the MIBI) uniquely were associated significantly with self-esteem. As predicted, higher scores on the immersion-emersion anti-white and internalization Afrocentricity subscales of the CRIS and the centrality and nationalist ideology subscales of the MIBI were associated uniquely with preference to socialize with Blacks only. Higher scores on the non-race focused ideologies subscales (the CRIS’s preencounter assimilation and internalization multiculturalist inclusive subscales and the MIBI’s assimilation and humanist subscales), along with the MIBI’s public regard subscale, were associated with preference to socialize with racially mixed groups. In addition, the MIBI overall predicted past GPAs, racial organization membership, and perceived racism in the past year and over a lifetime in this sample. Results have implications for African American mental health service delivery.Ph. D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Steven Allwoo