We got this: Evaluating racial socialization competency among diverse ethnic-racial groups

Shawn C T Jones; N Keita Christophe; Howard C Stevenson; Gabriela L Stein; Lisa Kiang; Michele Chan; Riana Elyse Anderson

doi:10.1037/fam0001210

We got this: Evaluating racial socialization competency among diverse ethnic-racial groups

J Fam Psychol. 2024 Apr 4. doi: 10.1037/fam0001210. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Shawn C T Jones¹, N Keita Christophe², Howard C Stevenson³, Gabriela L Stein⁴, Lisa Kiang⁵, Michele Chan⁶, Riana Elyse Anderson⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University.
² Department of Psychology, McGill University.
³ Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania.
⁴ Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin.
⁵ Department of Psychology, Wake Forest University.
⁶ Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
⁷ Hutchins Center for African American Research, Harvard University.

PMID: 38573697
DOI: 10.1037/fam0001210

Abstract

Historically, research on racial socialization (RS) has centered on frequency, beliefs, and content of parent-child communications, with varied applications and implications across racial and ethnic subgroups. The Racial Socialization Competency Scale (RaSCS; Anderson et al., 2020) was developed to assess three dimensions of a novel construct, RS competency (confidence, skills, stress), among Black caregivers. In this article, we investigated the psychometric properties of the RaSCS across diverse ethnic-racial groups. Participants were 778 caregivers (M_age = 44.4 years) of youth between the ages of 10 and 18 recruited from across the United States. The sample was intentionally racially and ethnically diverse, with 26.1% identifying as Black, 24.2% identifying as Latinx, 24.9% identifying as Asian American, and 24.8% identifying as White. Confirmatory factor analyses replicated the previously identified structure of the RaSCS subscales, and scores were reliable. Multigroup measurement invariance analyses supported full scalar invariance across the four racial/ethnic subgroups for the Confidence, Skills, and General RS Stress subscales and partial scalar invariance for the Call to Action RS Stress subscale. These findings suggest that the RaSCS is an appropriate tool for assessing RS competency across racial and ethnic groups and that RS competency as a universal construct is relevant across groups. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).