RACISM IN MINORITY CHILDREN

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The objective of this project is 1)to gain an understanding of the ways children of different ethnic minority backgrounds perceive, interpret, conceptualize, and process racism (racial discrimination and prejudice). 2)to utilize this information to create valid and reliable instruments for measuring perceptions of racism in minority children which will be based on developmental theory and which have saliency for children of different ethnicities, and 3)to use these instruments in studies aimed at understanding the effects of perceived racism on a]the developmental competencies and behavioral health of minority children, as well as b]disparities in health and health care outcomes seen in minority populations. Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval is being sought for Objective 2: the creation and testing of instruments (questionnaires) aimed at measuring perceptions of racism in minority children. A proto-questionnaire has been developed based on data gathered from semi-structured interviews with minority youths. This questionnaire includes items that pertain to 1) whether a child has experienced situations in which he/she perceived as being discriminated against based on ethnicity, skin color, accent, or culture. 2)the child's emotional response to the incident, and 3)the child's coping response. The present study proposal is to administer this proto-questionnaire to a sample of minority youth between the ages of 8 and 18, and psychometrically analyze the response to determine validity and reliability of the instrument. In addition to the Perceptions of Racism questionnaire, the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale and the Child Depression Inventory will be administered (as measures to be used in the determination of construct validity). These analyses will likely result in refinement of the proto-questionnaire, which can then be used in future studies to determine the effects of racism (as a psychosocial stressor) on minority child behavioral health and development, as a contributory stressor in acute and chronic illness etiology, as well as it's effects on health care and health services issues. Initial piloting of the proto-questionnaire will be conducted at the Boys and Girls Club of Asylum Hill. Additional testing will be conducted in the Hartford Public School System (upon approval from the Superintendent's Office of the Hartford Public School System). At the Boys and Girls Club, a convenience sample of minority (i.e., African American, Puerto Rican, and West Indian/Caribbean) children attending summer camp will be recruited. In the public school system, samples based on classroom assignment in middle and high schools will be procured. In both settings, informed consent of the parent, as well as child assent will be obtained. Although general descriptive demographic information such as age and ethnicity will be obtained, anonymity and confidentiality will be maintained; no personal identifiers will be recorded. Data analyses will include factor analysis for subscale identification, item analyses, item-scale correlations, determination of the internal consistency reliability (coefficient alpha), and construct validity determination through correlation analyses.