3-066 - “What’s Measurement Got to Do with It?” Testing Ethnic-Racial Equivalence of Identity-Related Measures

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

In an increasingly diverse society, appropriately measuring ethnic-racial identity, socialization, and discrimination is important to adequately represent multilayered cultural influences on development. However, research has yet to comprehensively test whether available measures are equivalent across ethnic-racial groups. Without such tests, group differences may be attributable to the measures’ psychometric properties rather than true group differences. The papers in this symposium contribute to the literature by examining measurement invariance for frequently used ethnic-racial identity-related measures. Drawing from ethnically, racially, and regionally diverse U.S. samples across childhood and adolescence, this symposium examines whether and how these measures may be compared across groups and development. To better understand early antecedents of ethnic-racial identity, the first paper examines equivalence of a parent-reported measure of racial socialization among 2.5 to 7-year-old African-American and Latino children in the southern U.S. The second paper examines equivalence of an ethnic-racial identity measure across three years of high school in an urban sample of ethnically diverse adolescents in the Northeast. The third paper draws from the Midwest and Southwest to evaluate measures of ethnic-racial identity, other group orientation, and ethnic-racial discrimination across Native American, Asian American, Black, and Latino adolescents. The fourth paper examines the psychometric properties of an American identity scale, focusing on equivalence for majority (i.e., White) and minority (i.e., Black, Latino) adolescents in the Southwest. Together, the papers provide researchers practical measurement advice, best practices for equivalence testing, and opportunities to discuss the complexity of using measures across ethnic-racial groups, developmental cohorts, and U.S. regions.

Sub Unit

• Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Chairs

• Elana R. McDermott, Harvard University

• Michael R Sladek, Harvard University

Individual Presentations

• Assessing Emergence of Ethnic-Racial Socialization: Longitudinal Measurement Invariance of African-American and Latino Children - Presenting Author: Mariah M Contreras, Tufts University; Non-Presenting Author: Margaret Caughy, University of Georgia; Non-Presenting Author: Margaret Tresch Owen, University of Texas at Dallas

• Longitudinal Measurement Invariance of Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) among Ethnically/Racially Diverse Adolescents - Presenting Author: Tiffany Yip, Fordham University; Non-Presenting Author: Yuen Mi Cheon, Fordham University

• Comparing Apples to Oranges? Mixed Support for Ethnic-Racial Equivalence of Ethnic-Racial Identity and Related Measures - Presenting Author: Michael R Sladek, Harvard University; Non-Presenting Author: Adriana Umaña-Taylor, Harvard University; Non-Presenting Author: Deborah Rivas-Drake, University of Michigan; Non-Presenting Author: Elana R. McDermott, Harvard University; Non-Presenting Author: Stefanie Martinez-Fuentes, Arizona State University

• Measurement Invariance of the American Identity Scale among White, Black, and Latino Adolescents - Presenting Author: Stefanie Martinez-Fuentes, Arizona State University; Non-Presenting Author: Adriana Umaña-Taylor, Harvard University; Non-Presenting Author: Elana R. McDermott, Harvard University