Strength of Ethnic Affiliation: Examining Black Identification with Black Culture

Applicability of Milliones' DIB-C Model in the South African Context

This study resulted from the need for multicultural validation of the theoretical models which describe the nature and development of black racial identity. The specific objective was to investigate the relevance of Milliones' (1980) Developmental Inventory of Black Consciousness (DIB-C) for the South African context. The results confirmed the existence of the preconscious and confrontation DIB-C dimensions, did not confirm the existence of the integration stage as proposed by Milliones, and indicated two separate dimensions (ingroup-outgroup integration and ingroup tolerance) which, taken together, partly resemble the integration construct of Milliones. A short version of the DIB-C for use in multi-measurement studies is also proposed.

Can racial identity be promotive of academic efficacy?

We hypothesised a gender specific relationship between efficacy and three components of racial identity, feeling that achievement is part of being black, feeling connected to the black community, and sensitivity to, awareness of outgroup barriers and racism. Because male gender socialisation downplays relationality, the “connectedness” component of racial identity was posited to be particularly helpful for boys. Because female gender socialisation downplays independent achievement and agency, the “achievement” component of racial identity was posited to be particularly helpful for girls in buffering the negative effects of the “awareness of racism” component. Controlling for fall grades and academic efficacy, fall racial identity significantly predicted spring academic efficacy differentially for boys and girls (n = 91 African-American eighth graders), with the lack of the achievement component of racial identity being particularly detrimental to girls.

A confirmatory test of the underlying factor structure of scores on the collective self-esteem scale in two independent samples of Black Americans

In this study, we examined the factor structure of the Collective Self-Esteem Scale (CSES; Luhtanen & Crocker, 1992) across 2 separate samples of Black Americans. The CSES was administered to a sample of Black American adolescents (n = 538) and a community sample of Black American adults (n = 313). Results of confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs), however, did not support the original 4-factor model identified by Luhtanen and Crocker (1992) as providing an adequate fit to the data for these samples. Furthermore, an exploratory CFA procedure failed to find a CSES factor structure that could be replicated across the 2 samples of Black Americans. We present and discuss implications of the findings.