Development and validation of the Australian Racism, Acceptance, and Cultural-Ethnocentrism Scale (RACES): measuring racism in Australia

Abstract

Existing Australian measures of racist attitudes focus on single groups and have generally not been validated across the lifespan. To redress this, a measure of racial, ethnic, cultural, and religious acceptance – the Australian Racism, Acceptance, and Cultural-Ethnocentrism Scale (RACES) – was developed and validated with children, adolescents, and adults. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 30 high school attendees aged 14-22 years, conducted from December 2011 to January 2012 in Victoria, Australia, understandings of and experiences with racism were critically examined. Data demonstrated the ambiguity of racism, while confirming that Australian youth utilise a reasonably consistent and sophisticated explanatory model to conceptualise, explain, and classify racism. The interview and focus group data were used to develop RACES items, and the preliminary instrument was consequently pilot tested with eight children. Expert advice and cognitive interviewing techniques ensured the item content was comprehensive, comprehendible, and relevant. RACES was utilised throughout the implementation of a Victorian anti-racism and pro- diversity initiative, Building Harmony in the Growth Corridor (Building Harmony), which was implemented from March to September 2012 with 296 primary school children. RACES enabled an evaluation of the efficacy of this initiative, which was one of few racism prevention interventions to respond proactively to potential diversity issues as new populations arrive within an identified area. The instrument was also disseminated to 402 adolescents and adults in the Australian community from April 2012 to April 2013. Consequent work aimed to provide the first exploration of psychopathic personality traits and racist attitudes, due to both being anti-social and sharing several commonalities, including their development and manifestation. RACES was refined and its reliability and validity was empirically investigated with data modelled and analysed utilising both Classical Test Theory and Item Response Theory. Psychometric properties, including content, construct, factorial, convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity, in addition to internal consistency and test-retest reliability, were each explored. The analyses provided strong support for the instrument as a robust measure of racist attitudes in the Australian context and for the overall reliability and validity of the 24-item RACES across primary school children, adolescents, and adults. The results indicate that RACES is a three-dimensional scale of Accepting Attitudes (12 items), Racist Attitudes (8 items), and Ethnocentric Attitudes (4 items), in addition to a 10-item measure of social desirability, each a reliable and valid scale independently. The instrument is the first Australian measure of general racist attitudes towards all racial, ethnic, cultural, and religious groups to be empirically validated across the lifespan. It is hoped that RACES will be utilised to assess and consequently enhance the efficacy of anti-racism and pro-diversity initiatives to assist with the reduction of racism throughout the Australian community.