Race/ethnicity and measurement equivalence of the Everyday Discrimination Scale.
The present study examines the effect of race/ethnicity on measurement equivalence of the Everyday Discrimination Scale (EDS; Williams, Yu, Jackson, & Anderson, 1997). Drawn from the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys (CPES; Alegría, Jackson, Kessler, & Takeuchi, 2008), adults aged 18 and older from four racial/ethnic groups were selected for analyses: 884 non-Hispanic Whites, 4,950 Blacks, 2,733 Hispanics/Latinos, and 2,089 Asians. Multiple-group confirmatory factor analyses were conducted. After adjusting for age and gender, the underlying construct of the EDS was invariant across four racial/ethnic groups, with Item 7 ("People act as if they're better than you are") associated with lower intercepts for the Hispanic/Latino and Asian groups relative to the non-Hispanic White and Black groups. In terms of latent factor differences, Blacks tended to score higher on the latent construct compared to other racial/ethnic groups, whereas Asians tended to score lower on the latent construct compared to Whites and Hispanics/Latinos. Findings suggest that although the EDS in general assesses the underlying construct of perceived discrimination equivalently across diverse racial/ethnic groups, caution is needed when Item 7 is used among Hispanics/Latinos or Asians. Implications are discussed in cultural and methodological contexts.
Center for Mental Health and Aging and Department of Psychology, The University of Alabama.
Giyeon
G
Kim
Research School of Psychology, The Australian National University.
Martin
M
Sellbom
Department of Psychology, The University of Alabama.
Katy-Lauren
KL
Ford
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001213:Asian / Q000523:psychology; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011287:Prejudice / Q000523:psychology*; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult