Testing invariance of ethnic-racial discrimination and identity measures for adolescents across ethnic-racial groups and contexts.

Abstract

Ethnic-racial discrimination experiences, ethnic-racial identity (ERI) development, and attitudes toward other ethnic-racial group contact all make important contributions to individuals' health and well-being. Absent from the literature is systematic examination of whether these constructs may be measured equivalently for adolescents from different ethnic-racial groups living in different contexts. In 2 large ethno-racially diverse samples of high school students in the Southwestern (N = 2,136) and Midwestern (N = 1,055) United States, the current study tested invariance of 4 widely used measures, including Adolescent Discrimination Distress Index (Fisher, Wallace, & Fenton, 2000), Ethnic Identity Scale-Brief (Douglass & Umaña-Taylor, 2015), Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity-Teen (Scottham, Sellers, & Nguyên, 2008), and Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure-Other Group Orientation (Phinney, 1992). Results from multigroup confirmatory factor analyses supported configural and metric but not scalar invariance across Asian, Black, Latinx, Native, and White American adolescents, and across geographic regions for Asian, Black, and White American adolescents. Results demonstrate the utility of these measures to examine whether associations with theoretically related constructs differ across groups and regions, but specific items preclude mean-level group difference tests for certain groups. Supporting convergent validity across ethno-racially diverse adolescents in 2 regions, scores on ethnic-racial discrimination from peers, adults in school, and other adults in society were each positively associated with depressive symptoms; ERI exploration, resolution, affirmation, centrality, and public regard scores were each positively associated with self-esteem; and other group orientation scores were positively associated with ERI achievement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).