Researchers have long been interested in racial attitudes and preferences of young children with a focus on the implications of societal racism on healthy development. The doll study paradigm popularized by Clark and Clark is the most commonly used measure for children; however, researchers also have adapted paper and pencil measures and…

African American adolescents must negotiate the transition to adulthood in a society that makes the achievement of positive cultural identity and self-respect difficult. Frequently, young men turn to violence in an attempt to achieve respect in their communities. This article explores factors that predict the use of violence among African American…

This study continues the line of research on children's racial preferences that dates to Kenneth and Mamie Clark's classic research that revealed that Black children preferred White dolls and attributed more positive characteristics to White dolls than to Black dolls. In the current research, the authors examined Black and White preschool…

The relations between racial socialization and color-blind racial beliefs (i.e., the denial, distortion, or minimization of racism) among 153 Black American college students, including 34 college student-parent dyads, were examined. Findings from open-ended data indicate that participants identified receiving both protective (i.e., messages about…

In this study, the author reports on a cross-sectional examination of nigrescence attitudes measured with the Cross Racial Identity Scale (CRIS) using three demographically and developmentally different samples already in the literature: adolescents (n = 143; M age = 14), emerging adults (n = 306; M age = 20.7), and adults (n = 105; M age = 34.1).…

The present research examined whether individual differences in extropunitive (i.e., distrust, dislike, and discriminatory expectations of Whites) and intropunitive (i.e., internalization of society's disparaging views) responses to prejudice account for African Americans' concrete attitudes toward school (i.e., experience-based doubts about…

Describes the development of the Prejudice Perception Assessment Scale, a brief scale composed of five vignettes aimed at assessing the extent to which participants perceive prejudice as the cause of negative outcomes in ambiguous situations. Results from studies with 66 and 109 African Americans distinguish stigma vulnerability from mistrust of…

Examined the structure of African American belief systems (racial attitudes and self-esteem) and its relationship to wellbeing, other group attachments, and system orientations across different age and generation groups. Interview data from three age-groupings of adults demonstrated substantial similarity across age cohorts in understanding of…

Racial identity attitude has become a popular research topic. Primary purposes of this study were twofold: (a) assessing the effects of college environment on racial identity attitudes and then (b) the effects of environment and racial identity attitude on African American men's body size preferences regarding women. Using weighted scale scores,…

Examined the relationships among racial self-designation, racial identity, attitudes, self-esteem, and demographic variables in a sample of 232 African Americans. Findings show 41% preferred black and 30% preferred African American. Gender, income, and educational level were each significantly correlated with racial identity attitudes. Racial…

Examined the interaction of educational utility, academic performance, and racial identity among African American college students, identifying clusters of students with differing profiles on a black identity inventory, then relating clusters to racial ideology. Results highlighted several profiles of high-achieving African American students with…

This study examined racial identity attitudes, acculturation, and gender as predictors of psychological health in a sample of African American college students. The participants were 136 undergraduate students who attended a predominantly White midwestern university. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that gender was a significant…

Examined the relationships between 103 black graduate students' experience of the imposter phenomenon and their racial identity attitudes, worldview perspectives, academic self-concept, background characteristics, and graduate school environment. Findings partially support the hypothesis that racial identity, Afrocentricity, academic self-concept,…

Emotion-related constructs hold understudied promise for understanding inter- and intraethnic attitudes and behaviors of African Americans. This article describes preliminary steps taken to explore the construct of interethnic social comfort through the revision and expansion of an existing measure of interethnic social distance, and to explore…

Black and white children ranging in age from three to seven were asked to answer questions pertaining to a black doll and a white doll placed in front of them in order to partially replicate Clark's and Clark's 1941 study on racial identification and preference in children, including a white group of children. It was found that black and white…