Adaptation of a Scale of Race-Related Stress for Use with Muslim Americans

Abstract

This article describes the adaptation and preliminary validation of the Race-Related Stressor Scale (RRSS) for use with Muslim Americans. The RRSS was developed as a measure of race-related stress experienced by Asian American veterans of the Vietnam War. The adapted measure, the Perceived Religious Discrimination Scale (PRDS), measures stress related to the perception of religious discrimination on three dimensions: stress associated with the perception of societal anti-Muslim discrimination; stress associated with incidents of personal discrimination; and bicultural identification with the Muslim-civilian victims of the Iraqi and Afghan conflicts. The PRDS appears to be a psychometrically sound measure of perceived religious discrimination and demonstrates high internal consistency. A factor analysis replicated the three dimensions existent in the original measure.