Poster #88 - Antiracist Orientation: A Construct to Bring Together Disparate Research

• In Event: Poster Session 05

Abstract

What do we mean when we say we hope to develop antiracist children? What are the skills, understandings, attitudes, and actions that we should promote and encourage? As schools, families, and other invested organizations and individuals work to promote antiracism amongst youth, it may be helpful to clarify what “being antiracist” means. The literature related to the development of antiracism in youth, however, is quite disparate. Sometimes the focus is action (e.g., Aldana et al., 2019), other times the focus is more on intergroup attitudes and bias (e.g., Elenbaas et al., 2016). Given this disparate literature, I propose a multi-component construct of antiracist orientation, derived from numerous definitions of antiracism (e.g., Miller and Garran, 2017; Roberts and Rizzo, 2021; Ture and Hamilton, 1967). It is referred to as an orientation to emphasize that antiracism is a lifelong process, not a fixed or stagnant construct (Hazelbaker et al., 2022). As illustrated in Figure 1, there are three components of an antiracist orientation: 1) engagement in antiracist action; 2) understanding of the systems of racism including racism, whiteness/white supremacy and power; and, 3) understanding of oneself in the system of racism including one’s racial identity, motivation to engage, and feelings of efficacy.
This study seeks to understand if this proposed construct of antiracist orientation exists. Specifically, I ask: is an unobserved latent construct of antiracist orientation that accounts for variance across constructs, actions, attitudes, and understandings often described as being antiracist? Or, are these elements unique, thus potentially requiring their own separate development? Such a framework can help us understand past research, better structure future research, and support practitioners and policymakers as they seek to create and develop programs that support youth development of antiracism.
Data collection is currently underway. Around 600 youth aged 12 to 17 are being recruited using Qualtrics Research Services. The sample is intended to be racially diverse, approximately one-fifth each white, Black, Asian, Latinx and identifies as something else (e.g., Indigenous, multiracial). Figure 1 also contains the measures that are being used for each component. A two-step factor analysis process will be used to explore the relationships amongst the three constructs (Fabrigar and Wegener, 2012). First, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) will be used with half the sample, and then confirmatory factor analysis with the other half to confirm the structure identified during EFA.

Author

• Dominique Odelle Tunzi, Vanderbilt University
  Presenting Author