Black Youth Understanding of Racial Inequality: Scale Development and Validation

该奖项是美国国家科学基金会社会、行为和经济科学（SBE）博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）项目和社会心理学项目的一部分。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学事业准备有前途的早期职业博士级科学家。SPRF奖励包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行为期两年的培训，并鼓励博士后进行独立研究。美国国家科学基金会寻求促进科学界各阶层的科学家，包括那些未被充分代表的群体的科学家，参与其研究项目和活动；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的一个重要的专业发展阶段。每个博士后必须解决各自学科领域的重要科学问题。在博士的赞助下。密歇根大学的Riana Anderson和Enrique Neblett，这项博士后奖学金支持一位早期职业科学家研究黑人青年认识，理解和理解种族主义的认知过程，也就是说，他们对种族主义的认识。最近的研究发现，在青春期早期，黑人青年可以识别并阐明他们学校经历中的系统性问题和不平等之间的联系。批判意识理论认为，如果没有对压迫的意识，边缘化群体就无法打破压迫性规范和社会不平等。迄今为止，还没有一种心理测量工具能够捕捉到黑人青年对种族主义（一种特定形式的压迫）的认知理解。了解黑人青年对种族主义的认知有可能为未经检验的理论假设提供经验支持，加强解决种族压力和创伤的临床方法，并加强研究方法来检查种族主义对黑人青年及其家庭生活的影响。最后，了解对种族主义的认识是如何发展的，可以作为一种催化剂，确定可以利用内部和外部力量来对抗种族主义负面后果的干预点。这个研究项目的目标是为理论和研究做出贡献，以了解种族主义对黑人青年生活的影响。本研究旨在通过以下方式解决目前的差距：(1)解构黑人青年对种族主义的理解和表达程度；(2)开发一种心理测量工具，通过使用类似的测量和定义来评估种族主义意识，从而简化和加强研究之间的联系。通过了解黑人青年在多大程度上意识到系统内部和跨系统的不同形式的种族主义，这项工作可以为旨在打击种族主义的干预计划提供经验支持。即将发布的种族主义意识量表的开发将采用三个阶段的模型-项目开发，量表开发和量表评估-量表开发。量表开发的前两个阶段包括设计和测试种族主义意识量表的维度。最后阶段将包括数据收集和比额表评价分析。在数据收集的这一阶段，将开发一项调查，其中包括其他相关量表，并测试量表的预测效度、收敛效度和判别效度。这种评价还将引发与经历种族主义和理解种族主义之间的联系和分歧有关的新问题。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program and the Social Psychology program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Drs. Riana Anderson and Enrique Neblett at the University of Michigan, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist examining the cognitive process through which Black youth know about, make meaning of, and understand racism, that is, their awareness of racism. Recent work has found that during early adolescence, Black youth can identify and articulate connections between systemic issues and inequities in their schooling experiences. Critical Consciousness theory suggests that without an awareness of oppression, marginalized groups cannot work to disrupt oppressive norms and societal inequities. To date, there has not been a psychometric tool that captures Black youth's cognitive understanding of racism, a specific form of oppression. An understanding of Black youth's cognitions around racism has the potential to provide empirical support for untested theoretical assumptions, enhance clinical approaches to addressing racial stress and trauma, and strengthen research approaches to examining the influence of racism in the lives of Black youth and their families. Finally, understanding how awareness of racism develops may serve as a catalyst to identify points of intervention that may draw on internal and external strengths to combat the negative consequences of racism. The goal of this research project is to contribute to theory and research seeking to understand the influence of racism on the lives of Black youth. The proposed study aims to address these current gaps by: (1) deconstructing the extent to which Black youth understand and can articulate their understanding of racism, and (2) developing a psychometric tool that can streamline and strengthen the connection between studies by using similar measurements and definitions to assess racism awareness. By understanding the extent to which Black youth are aware of the distinct forms of racism, within and across systems, this work can provide empirical support for intervention programs aimed at combating racism. The development of the forthcoming Racism Awareness Scale will be achieved using a three-phase model—item development, scale development, and scale evaluation—of scale development. The first two phases of the scale development consist of designing and testing the dimensionality of the Racism Awareness Scale. The final phase will consist of data collection and analyses for scale evaluation. During this phase of data collection, a survey will be developed that includes other related scales and tests the predictive, convergent, and discriminant validity of the scale. This evaluation will also spark new questions related to the associations between and divergences from experiencing racism and understanding racism.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.