The Initial Development and Validation of the Racial Socialization Competency Scale: Quality and Quantity

• Published in: Cultural diversity & ethnic minority psychology Vol. 26; no. 4; pp. 426 - 436
• Main Authors: Anderson, Riana Elyse, Jones, Shawn C. T., Stevenson, Howard C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Educational Publishing Foundation 01-10-2020
• Subjects: Black People; Competence; Discrimination; Female; Human; Humans; Male; Measurement; Race and Ethnic Discrimination; Racial and Ethnic Socialization; Racial Groups; Racism; Reproducibility of Results; Social Identification; Socialization; Stress; Test Construction; Test Reliability; Test Validity; United States; United States; discrimination; competency; racial socialization; measurement; Black families
• ISSN: 1099-9809; 1939-0106
• DOI: 10.1037/cdp0000316

Objectives: The present study investigated the reliability and validity of the Racial Socialization Competency Scale (RaSCS). As posited by the Racial Encounter Coping Appraisal and Socialization Theory (RECAST), the RaSCS consists of 3 factors representing 3 novel dimensions of racial socialization competency present in families (e.g., stress, skills, and confidence). Method: Responses to the RaSCS were collected from 361 self-identified Black and African American parents and primary caretakers across the United States. Results: After factor analysis, three scales and 27 items were maintained. Evidence was consistently found for 2 subscales within the stress dimension, namely "Call to Action" and "General" racial socialization stressors. Dimensions were also related to their respectively hypothesized constructs, including overall stress, racial socialization frequency, and self-efficacy. Conclusions: Future directions and recommendations on the measure's use, particularly in the context of interventions, are also discussed.
Public Significance Statement
Raising children is a challenging task for any caregiver, however, it takes additional confidence and skills to competently raise Black children in a society plagued with racial strife. This study advances a new way to measure "racial socialization" (or racial communication and actions between caregiver and child) through a lens of competence, including confidence, skills, and stress. A competency perspective allows families to engage in racial socialization with an improvement-oriented framework and will also be useful in interventions seeking to improve familial confidence and skills while reducing stress over time.