Perceptions of Racism in Minority Children

说明(申请人提供)：本项目的目的是：1)了解不同少数族裔背景的儿童对种族主义(种族歧视和偏见)的看法、解释、概念化和处理的方式；2)利用这些信息创建有效和可靠的工具，用于衡量少数族裔儿童中种族主义的看法，这些工具将以发展理论为基础，对不同族裔的儿童产生突出影响；3)利用这些工具进行研究，旨在了解少数族裔儿童感受到的种族主义对发展能力和行为健康的影响，以及少数族裔人口在健康和保健结果方面的差异。该项目的初始阶段将利用定性的社会科学方法，如焦点小组，深入了解非洲裔美国人、西印度群岛/加勒比人、波多黎各人和不同年龄段的英裔欧洲人(占多数)儿童对偏见和歧视的发展和理解。根据这些数据，将开发调查问卷工具，用于可靠地衡量儿童对种族主义的看法。将使用定量方法构建工具(例如，项目和因素分析)，测试效度和可靠性，以及分析跨文化概念和衡量标准的等价性(例如，项目反应理论，共识分析)。将为不同的年龄段和种族开发不同的工具。这些工具可用于今后的研究，以确定种族主义(一个心理社会变量)对少数群体儿童行为健康和发育的影响，作为导致急性和慢性病的压力源，以及对保健和保健服务问题的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objectives of this project are: 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 that will be based on developmental theory and will have salience for children of different ethnicities; and 3) to use these instruments in studies aimed at understanding the effects of perceived racism on the developmental competencies and behavioral health of minority children, as well as on the disparities in health and health care outcomes seen in minority populations. The initial phase of this project will utilize qualitative social science methodologies such as focus groups to gain insight into the development and understanding of prejudice and discrimination in African American, West Indian/Caribbean, Puerto Rican, and Anglo-European (majority) children of different age groups. From these data, questionnaire instruments will be developed that will be used to reliably measure perceptions of racism in children. Quantitative methodologies will be used for instrument construction (e.g., item and factor analysis) and in the testing of validity and reliability, as well as for the analysis of cross-cultural conceptual and metric equivalency (e.g., item response theory, consensus analysis). Separate instruments will be developed for different age groups and ethnicities. These instruments can then be used in future studies to determine the effects of racism (a psychosocial variable) on minority child behavioral health and development, as a stressor contributing to acute and chronic illness, as well as on health care and health services issues.