Racial Identity in White American College Students: Issues of Conceptualization and Measurement

Journal of College Student Development, Mar/Apr 2003 by Mercer, Sterett H, Cunningham, Michael

Racial identity primarily has been researched in the United States as a variable affecting ethnic minority individuals; however, due to changing demographics, researchers have begun to examine the construct for White individuals as well. While the White Racial Identity Attitudes Scale (WRIAS) is the most commonly used instrument to assess White racial identity, it has also been the most scrutinized. To address some of the controversy surrounding the measure 's validity, a principal components analysis of the measure was conducted with data from 430 college students in a Southern urban city. The results indicated four factors that did not correspond to the original scales of the WRIAS. In fact, the rescaled constructs reflected two dimensions of positive White identity and two dimensions of negative White identity. Implications for the utilization of the rescaled measure for college populations are given.

The study of racial identity in college students is growing in importance in the U.S. where demographics indicate an increasingly racially diverse population. U.S. census projections suggest that by 2050 the White population, currently around 74%, will account for only 53% of the population (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1994). In addition, the percentage of racial minorities graduating from colleges and professional schools has risen steadily since the 1960s (Bowen & Bok, 1998). Both trends may increase the likelihood of racially diverse social encounters both on and off campus; consequently, issues of racial identity are becoming more salient (Wong, 1997). As individuals construct meaning out of these encounters, issues related to racial identity development and the measurement of constructs related to racial identity need to be explored by student affairs professionals to provide adequate services and supportive learning environments.

The construction of identity, through self-definition and commitment to this definition, is one of the major tasks faced in adolescence. According to Erikson (1968), teenagers experience an identity crisis, a period of confusion as they experiment with alternatives, before committing to set values and goals. Although Erikson's classic definition is useful, recent theorists have referred to this process as identity exploration, rather than crisis. As identity exploration, identity development is conceptualized as more of a gradual progression than an acute restructuring of the self for many adolescents (for review, see Baumeister, 1990). One of the many aspects of identity that adolescents explore is racial identity.

Racial identity development grows in salience for late adolescents due to their increased capabilities for social perspectivetaking and cognitive complexity (Inhelder & Piaget, 1958). Late adolescents may face changes in life events, such as going away to college or moving out of the family home, that may allow for further identity exploration (Erikson, 1968). Among those late adolescents who attend college, racial identity is strongly influenced by racially diverse social interactions and curricula aimed towards the examination of racial issues. The current study explores racial identity development in college students.

Race, in particular the social implications of phenotypic characteristics, affects our understanding of self. According to Mead (1934), the self "develops in a given individual as the result of his [sic] relations to [the process of social experience and activity] as a whole and to other individuals within that process" (p. 201). Through socially meaningful visible characteristics, race affects how we view ourselves through the interactions of individuals in a society where individuals are treated differently based upon these visible characteristics (Helms & Talleyrand, 1997). Recognition that racial group membership has important psychological implications for the individual in a race-conscious society is a central assumption of research in racial identity development. In a society of advantageous or disadvantageous treatment based on phenotype, socialization influences the internalized, reflective appraisals of one's race, both in isolation and in relation to other racial groups (Helms & Talleyrand).

Racial identity has been researched in the United States as a variable affecting primarily ethnic minority individuals. Researchers have described it as the process through which these individuals progress in the acceptance of a racial group membership that is devalued by the majority culture (for review, see Cross, 1991). Recently, theorists have examined the racial identity of White individuals, primarily through the mechanisms that White individuals employ in developing a nonracist identity as members of a privileged group in U.S. society (Helms, 1984, 1995; Sabnani, Ponterotto, & Borodovsky, 1991).

WHITE RACIAL IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT

A variety of models have been proposed (Helms, 1984, 1995; Rowe, Bennett, & Atkinson, 1994; Sabnani et al., 1991; Sue & Sue, 1990) in the growing research of White racial identity development. Perhaps the most extensively studied of these models, Helms's (1984, 1990, 1995) heuristic perspective describes a linear process of attitudinal development in six stages through which White individuals progress. The stages involve the abandoning of both racism and White privilege and accepting a nonracist, humanistic White identity. In the model, stages are described as being permeable, or mutually nonexclusive; as such, a White individual may be operating in one or more stages simultaneously.