Measures of Racial Identity: An Overview and a Proposed Framework

Since its inception, the area of racial identity has undergone multiple revisions in both the understanding of the theoretical construct and in the development of the assessment techniques. James Bayton and Charles Thomas laid the foundation for much of what has been investigated regarding racial identity to date. This paper focuses on the diverse instruments utilized in the assessment of racial identity among African American adults. The purpose of the review is to suggest and provide a framework for conceptualizing racial identity. Thus, the authors categorize the instruments into one of four broad approaches: (1) developmental approaches, (2) Africentric approaches, (3) group-based approaches, and (4) measures of racial stereotyping. Given the varied theoretical underpinnings of the measures and widely divergent results obtained when using different instruments, researchers are encouraged to select the measure of racial identity that most accurately reflects the nature of the research question proposed.