Predictors of African American and European American adolescents' endorsement of race-conscious social policies.

To examine the predictors of adolescents' evaluations of affirmative action and school desegregation policies, African American and European American students (ns = 94 and 116, respectively; aged 14 to 17 years) attending a racially diverse high school in the Midwestern United States completed measures of (a) implicit racial attitudes, (b) knowledge about historical racism, and (c) perceptions of and attributions for racial disparities. The following day, adolescents learned about either a proposed affirmative action policy (n = 101) or a school desegregation policy (n = 109) and completed measures of their attitudes toward the policy. Results indicated racial differences in policy support and in the factors predicting policy support. Theoretical implications of the findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Promoting academic achievement: The role of racial identity in buffering perceptions of teacher discrimination on academic achievement among African American and Caribbean Black adolescents.

In this study, the authors examined the moderating effects of different dimensions racial identity (i.e., racial centrality and public regard) on perceptions of teacher discrimination and academic achievement among a nationally represented sample of African American and Caribbean Black adolescents. The findings revealed that perceived teacher discrimination was negatively related to academic achievement for both African American and Caribbean Black youth. In addition, high racial centrality and low public regard buffered the negative consequences of high levels of perceived teacher discrimination on academic achievement among Caribbean Black adolescents. Implications of these findings for academic achievement among Black youth are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Body dissatisfaction, ethnic identity, and disordered eating among African American women.

Initial research suggested that only European American women developed eating disorders (Garner, 1993), yet recent studies have shown that African American women do experience them (e.g., Lester & Petrie, 1998b; Mulholland & Mintz, 2001) and also may be negatively affected by similar sociocultural variables. In this study, we examined a sociocultural model of eating disorders for African American women but included the influences of ethnic identity (e.g., Hall, 1995; Helms, 1990). Participants (N = 322) were drawn from 5 different universities. They completed measures representing ethnic identity, societal pressures regarding thinness, internalization of societal beauty ideals, body image concerns, and disordered eating. Structural equation modeling revealed that ethnic identity was inversely, and societal pressures regarding thinness directly, related to internalization of societal beauty ideals. Societal pressures regarding thinness was also related to greater body image concerns. Both internalization of societal beauty ideals and body image concerns were positively associated with disordered eating (R2 = .79). Overall, the final model fit the data well, supporting its generalizability and the importance of ethnic identity in determining risk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Racial identity, social context, and race-related social cognition in African Americans during middle childhood.

This study examined the effect of changes in racial identity, cross-race friendships, same-race friendships, and classroom racial composition on changes in race-related social cognition from 3rd to 5th grade for 73 African American children. The goal of the study was to determine the extent to which preadolescent racial identity and social context predict expectations of racial discrimination in cross-race social interactions (social expectations). Expectations of racial discrimination were assessed using vignettes of cross-race social situations involving an African American child in a social interaction with European Americans. There were 3 major findings. First, expectations for discrimination declined slightly from 3rd to 5th grade. Second, although racial composition of children's classrooms, number of European American friends, gender, and family poverty status were largely unrelated to social expectations, having more African American friends was associated with expecting more discrimination in cross-racial interactions from 3rd to 5th grade. Third, increases in racial centrality were related to increases in discrimination expectations, and increases in public regard were associated with decreases in discrimination expectations. These data suggest that as early as 3rd grade, children are forming attitudes about their racial group that have implications for their cross-race social interactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An Empirically Supported Reconceptualization of African-U.S. Racial Identity Development as an Abnormal Process.

Transformational, developmental process theories of African-U.S. racial identity development are flawed because they conceptualize ontogenetic experience without embedding it in phylogenetic dictates. As a result, culminating psychological states are not depicting identity progression but actually mask a sophisticated regression to a "deracinated," psychologically misoriented orientation. Therefore, African-U.S. racial identity development is reconceptualized as an abnormal psychology feature of the behavior of otherwise normal persons. This thesis is supported empirically by survey research showing that low identity statuses and purported high identity states evince similar anti-African/Black correlation patterns. African-U.S. identity metamorphosis appears to be a process of identity diffusion, not identity progression. Recommendations for racial identity theory and research and counseling and clinical practice are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender matters, too: The influences of school racial discrimination and racial identity on academic engagement outcomes among African American adolescents.

The authors examined relationships among racial identity, school-based racial discrimination experiences, and academic engagement outcomes for adolescent boys and girls in Grades 8 and 11 (n = 204 boys and n = 206 girls). The authors found gender differences in peer and classroom discrimination and in the impact of earlier and later discrimination experiences on academic outcomes. Racial centrality related positively to school performance and school importance attitudes for boys. Also, centrality moderated the relationship between discrimination and academic outcomes in ways that differed across gender. For boys, higher racial centrality related to diminished risk for lower school importance attitudes and grades from experiencing classroom discrimination relative to boys lower in centrality, and girls with higher centrality were protected against the negative impact of peer discrimination on school importance and academic self-concept. However, among lower race-central girls, peer discrimination related positively to academic self-concept. Finally, socioeconomic background moderated the relationship of discrimination with academic outcomes differently for girls and boys. The authors discuss the need to consider interactions of individual- and contextual-level factors in better understanding African American youths' academic and social development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Examining the relationship between multiple internalized oppressions and African American lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning persons' self-esteem and psychological distress.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 56(2) of Journal of Counseling Psychology (see record 2009-04542-008). The DOI was incorrect. The correct DOI is 10.1037/a0013317.] Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning (LGBQ) persons come from diverse cultural groups with diverse racial and ethnic identities. However, most research on LGBQ persons has used primarily White samples, and most research on African Americans has used largely heterosexual samples. Thus, research has largely failed to attend to and investigate the complexity of African American LGBQ persons' experiences. This study examined the relations between multiple internalized oppressions and African American sexual minority persons' self-esteem and psychological distress. Results indicated that when examined together, internalized racism and internalized heterosexism (also known as internalized homophobia) were both significant negative predictors of self-esteem, but only internalized heterosexism was a unique positive predictor of psychological distress. The interaction of internalized racism and internalized heterosexism was not a significant predictor of self-esteem or psychological distress. Finally, the authors' findings indicate that self-esteem partially mediates the relationship between internalized heterosexism and psychological distress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Between the Cup of Principle and the Lip of Practice: Ethnic Minorities and American Psychology, 1966-1980.

By 1980, the previously held dichotomy of Black and White racial identity in America had yielded to a mosaic of red, yellow, brown, black, and white. During the 1960s and 1970s, identity, and thus psychological knowledge, were articulated and differentiated in terms of gender, sexual orientation, and class in unprecedented ways. In this article, the author contextualizes efforts to make mainstream American psychology more receptive to ethnic minorities between 1966 and 1980. Advocacy and activism by ethnic minority psychologists forced American mainstream psychology to yield a place at the table to non-White, non-European individuals. He emphasizes the recruitment and retention of ethnic minority graduate students and faculty, and concludes that many individual psychologists were important in forcing changes in these areas. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discrimination and unfair treatment: Relationship to cardiovascular reactivity among African American and European American women.

This study examined the relationship of cardiovascular reactivity to both interpersonal mistreatment and discrimination in a community-based sample of African American and European American women (N?=?363) in midlife. Subtle mistreatment related positively to diastolic blood pressure (DBP) reactivity for African American participants but not their European American counterparts. Moreover, among the African American participants, those who attributed mistreatment to racial discrimination exhibited greater average DBP reactivity. In particular, these women demonstrated greater DBP reactivity to the speech task, which bore similarities to an encounter with racial prejudice but not to a nonsocial mirror tracing task. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that racial discrimination is a chronic stressor that can negatively impact the cardiovascular health of African Americans through pathogenic processes associated with physiologic reactivity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Therapists' race and African American clients' reactions to therapy.

This study examines the posttherapy reactions and attitudes of 44 African American clients seen at a university clinic in a midwestern city. Clients were randomly assigned to European American or African American therapists for 10 sessions of interpersonal or problem solving therapy. Therapy attitudes and reactions were assessed through clients' ratings of how well they understood and accepted the goals of therapy, their ability to accept and make use of therapeutic interventions, and perceptions of therapeutic benefit. The impact of European American therapists' efforts to cope with racial differences through therapist-initiated discussion of race in the first session or no therapist-initiated discussion of race were examined. African American clients' ratings of therapy indicated that there was a relationship between therapists' race and the understanding and acceptance of therapeutic interventions and perceived benefit of therapy. Clients rated therapeutic understanding and acceptance higher when assigned to an African American therapist. Therapists' initiation of or noninitiation of discussions of race had no affect on ratings of therapy. The clinical implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Racial and ethnic identity theory, measurement, and research in counseling psychology: Present status and future directions.

The present article integrates and expands on the special section contributions of K. O. Cokley (2007); J. E. Helms (2007); J. E. Trimble (2007); S. M. Quintana (2007); and J. S. Phinney and A. D. Ong (2007). The authors of the present article begin with a note on politics and ideology in writings on racial identity development and review general progress the field has made on the topics of racial and ethnic identity development. The present challenges in both explicating clear and concise theories of racial and ethnic identity development and operationalizing and measuring these constructs in paper-and-pencil form are identified. The need for interdisciplinary work on theory testing is highlighted, and select examples of best practices in measuring racial and ethnic identity are presented. The article closes with directions for research in racial and ethnic identity development, and with implications for counseling practice, supervision, and systemic change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special section on racial and ethnic identity in counseling psychology: Conceptual and methodological challenges and proposed solutions.

Racial and ethnic identity development have been important topics in counseling psychology research for the last four decades. At present, however, there appears to be some confusion and debate regarding the quality of theory and measurement in the topical area. The present article serves as an introduction to this Journal of Counseling Psychology special section on "Racial and Ethnic Identity in Counseling Psychology: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges and Proposed Solutions." A rationale is provided for the special section, the place of racial and ethnic identity scholarship is located within the history of multicultural counseling research, and the invited special section contributions by K. O. Cokley (2007), J. E. Helms (2007), J. E. Trimble (2007), S. M. Quintana (2007), J. S. Phinney and A. D. Ong (2007), and J. G. Ponterotto and J. Park-Taylor (2007) are introduced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethnic Identity and Approach-Type Coping as Moderators of the Racial Discrimination/Well-Being Relation in Asian Americans.

Ethnic identity, in combination with approach-type coping strategies (i.e., social support seeking, cognitive restructuring, and problem solving), was hypothesized to moderate the effects of perceived racial discrimination on the well-being of Asian American college students. Results found that individuals with a strong ethnic identity were more likely to engage in approach-type coping strategies, but the use of cognitive restructuring and problem solving coping buffered the effects of racial discrimination on well-being only when racial discrimination was low. These results are contrary to the current literature and suggest ethnic identity and approach-type coping strategies may not always protect against discrimination for Asian Americans. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A preliminary report on a new measure: Internalization of the Model Minority Myth Measure (IM-4) and its psychological correlates among Asian American college students.

This investigation is a preliminary report on a new measure of internalization of the model minority myth. In 3 studies, there was evidence for the validation of the 15-item Internalization of the Model Minority Myth Measure (IM-4), with 2 subscales. The Model Minority Myth of Achievement Orientation referred to the myth of Asian Americans’ greater success than other racial minority groups associated with their stronger work ethics, perseverance, and drives to succeed. The Model Minority Myth of Unrestricted Mobility referred to the myth of Asian Americans’ greater success than other racial minority groups associated with their stronger belief in fairness of treatment and lack of perceived racism or barriers at school or work. The 2-subscale structure of the IM-4 was supported by a combination of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, with support of discriminant, convergent, and incremental validity, as well as internal reliability and stability over 2 weeks. The IM-4 is a new measure that taps into a uniquely racialized experience of Asian Americans with research and clinical implications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethnic Enclaves and the Dynamics of Social Identity on the College Campus: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

The effects of membership in ethnic organizations and fraternities and sororities on intergroup attitudes were examined using a 5-wave panel study at a major, multiethnic university. The results showed that these effects were similar for both minority and White students. Membership in ethnic student organizations for minorities and Greek organizations for Whites was anteceded by the degree of one's ethnic identity, and the effects of membership in these groups were similar, although not identical, for both White and minority students. These effects included an increased sense of ethnic victimization and a decreased sense of common identity and social inclusiveness. Consistent with social identity theory, at least a portion of these effects were mediated by social identity among both White and minority students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of racial and sexual harassment on work and the psychological well-being of African American women.

Research on workplace harassment has typically examined either racial or sexual harassment, without studying both simultaneously. As a result, it remains unknown whether the co-occurrence of racial and sexual harassment or their interactive effects account for unique variance in work and psychological well-being. In this study, hierarchical linear regression analyses were used to explore the influence of racial and sexual harassment on these outcomes among 91 African American women involved in a sexual harassment employment lawsuit. Results indicated that both sexual and racial harassment contributed significantly to the women's occupational and psychological outcomes. Moreover, their interaction was statistically significant when predicting supervisor satisfaction and perceived organizational tolerance of harassment. Using a sample of African American women employed in an organizational setting where harassment was known to have occurred and examining sexual and racial harassment concomitantly makes this study unique. As such, it provides novel insights and an important contribution to an emerging body of research and underscores the importance of assessing multiple forms of harassment when examining organizational stressors, particularly among women of color. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of racial perspectives and contextual variables on marital trust and adjustment for African American couples.

This study examined the associations of racial perspectives that represent pro-African American, anti-African American, or a mixture of these beliefs with marital trust and adjustment for African American couples (N=93). Religious well-being and socioeconomic status (SES) were examined as contextual moderators. For husbands only, the anti-African American perspective was inversely associated with couple functioning, the mixed perspective was inversely associated with marital trust, and the pro-African American perspective predicted marital trust only for husbands having relatively low religious well-being and relatively high SES. The limited effects of pro-African American attitudes suggest the need to evaluate a wider range of these attitudes in future research. Also, findings corroborate suggestions for therapists to routinely assess and address both cultural pride and shame issues relevant to African American couple relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individualistic and collectivistic worldviews: Implications for understanding perceptions of racial discrimination in African Americans and British Caribbean Americans.

Cultural worldviews and perceived racial discrimination were examined among Americans (n = 106) and British Caribbean Americans (n = 95), both of African descent, who were recruited through university student organizations, community organizations, and snowball sampling. Consistent with public perceptions of differences in the experience of race among these 2 groups, multiple regression analyses revealed African Americans were more likely than British Caribbean Americans to perceive racial discrimination in the United States. In addition, a cultural worldview focus on individuality and equality (i.e., horizontal individualism) moderated the relationship between ethnic group and perceived racial discrimination. British Caribbean Americans who endorsed greater agreement with horizontal individualism were less likely to perceive racial discrimination. The same worldview was unrelated to African Americans' perceptions of racial discrimination. The results are discussed with respect to within-group heterogeneity among persons of African descent. Implications for counseling persons of African descent and future research directions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Meaning of Race in Psychology and How to Change It: A Methodological Perspective.

The primary purpose of this article was to offer a methodological critique in support of arguments that racial categories should be replaced as explanatory constructs in psychological research and theory. To accomplish this goal, the authors (a) summarized arguments for why racial categories should be replaced; (b) used principles of the scientific method to show that racial categories lack conceptual meaning; (c) identified common errors in researchers' measurement, statistical analyses, and interpretation of racial categories as independent variables; and (d) used hierarchical regression analysis to illustrate a strategy for replacing racial categories in research designs with conceptual variables. Implications for changing the study of race in psychology are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethnic pride and self-control related to protective and risk factors: Test of the theoretical model for the strong African American families program.

Objective. To test a theoretical model of how ethnic pride and self-control are related to risk and protective factors. Design. A community sample of 670 African American youth (mean age = 11.2 years) were interviewed in households. Main Outcome Measures. Measures of cigarette smoking, alcohol use, and sexual behavior (lifetime to past month). Results. Structural modeling analyses indicated parenting was related to self-control and self-esteem, and racial socialization was related to ethnic pride. Self-control and self-esteem variables were related to levels of deviance-prone attitudes and to perceptions of engagers in, or abstainers from, substance use and sexual behavior. The proximal factors (behavioral willingness, resistance efficacy, and peer behavior) had substantial relations to the criterion variables. Participant gender and parental education also had several paths in the model. Results were generally similar for the 2 outcome behaviors. Conclusions. In this population, self-esteem and self-control are related to parenting approaches and have pathways to attitudes and social perceptions that are significant factors for predisposing to, or protecting against, early involvement in substance use and sexual behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)