Racial Identity Among White Americans: Structure, Antecedents, and Consequences

Abstract

In this chapter, I examine the structure, determinants, and selected attitudinal consequences of racial identity among white Americans. In 2014, the General Social Survey included five items tapping five aspects or dimensions of racial identity: prominence, salience, private self-regard, public self-regard, and verification. These items reflect our understanding of identity as a multidimensional phenomenon and are useful to a research agenda casting racial identity in such terms. However, given the inherent limitations of single-item indicators of various aspects of identity, and in light of the underdevelopment of research on white racial identity, exploration of multi-item measurement strategies for racial identity is also warranted. I use factor and reliability analyses to examine the structure of white racial identity, finding sufficient inter-item consistency to support creation of a five-item “identity intensity” index (alpha = 0.84). I then use regression analysis to expand our understanding of white racial identity as both “social product and social force” (Rosenberg 1981), by modeling how it is shaped by sociodemographic factors, while also carrying implications for whites’ racial policy attitudes.