Measuring Racism: A Meta-Analytic Confirmatory Factor Analysis (MA-CFA) of the Colorblind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS)

• In Event: Methods Matter: New Directions in Interrogating the Social Contexts of Education

Abstract

The present study focuses on the Colorblind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS), used to measure color-evasive racist attitudes. We evaluate its psychometric properties in a covariance matrix approximating the population through meta-analytic confirmatory factor analysis (MA-CFA). Using the frameworks of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and QuantCrit, we synthesized data from prior research that has employed the CoBRAS. The analysis reveals that both the one-factor and three-factor models of CoBRAS are reasonable fits to the data and yield acceptable score reliability, especially with item 4 omitted. The three-factor model is slightly stronger. The findings support the continued use of CoBRAS in educational research to measure racial attitudes. This study underscores the importance of rigorous measurement in understanding and addressing racism.

Authors

• Kamden Strunk, Virginia Commonwealth University

• Tzu-Wei Wang, Virginia Commonwealth University