Structure of racial attitudes in white middle adolescents

Abstract

Middle adolescent White children (N=101, mean age 17.0 years) were subjects in a study assessing the comparability of racial attitudes as measured through the use of various response formats. Attitudes toward White and Black racial stimuli, respectively, were assessed through responses to (1) a traditional, forced-choice format; (2) a dimensionalized, bipolar item format requiring placement of ten Whites and ten Blacks, respectively, along each of ten 7-point dimensions; (3) a format identical to (2) except in the requirement of only one racial stimulus attribution per dimension; and (4) a format requiring the estimation of the percentage of time a White and a Black stimulus, respectively, manifested each item characteristic. Although mean responses derived from the latter three response-latitude methods were directionally consistent with corresponding forced-choice, frequency data, neither the multidimensional locations of these means nor their intradimensional separations were very disparate. Moreover, although correlational analyses indicated relatively low forced-choice /response-latitude method consistency, and even lower, and essentially nonsignificant, intramethod consistency when intra-item Black-White ratings from the response-latitude methods were considered, moderate and significant consistencies existed in the intermethod comparisons among the response-latitude methods. This finding was taken as evidence of convergent and discriminant validation. It was concluded that inferences drawn about the structure of racial attitudes based on data derived from forced-choice formats are not supported by data derived from response-latitude methods and that, alternatively, these latter methods provide evidence for the existence of other attitude structures.