Racial Identity and Its Assessment in a Sample of African-American Men in Treatment for Cocaine Dependence

Abstract

Substance abuse treatment studies frequently include subjects from different ethnic and racial groups, but many investigations limit the examination of race and ethnicity to the use of nominal labels. This approach reveals little about the social or psychological significance of racial and ethnic group membership to the subjects of study or about the potential effects of these factors on substance-involved behaviors. In this study, a principal components analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation was conducted on the 50-item long form of the Racial Identity Attitude Scale (RIAS) in a sample of 294 African-American men in treatment for cocaine dependence. The RIAS was developed to measure attitudes about race and racial status among blacks, but it has not been utilized widely in substance abuse research. Our findings provide evidence for the structural validity of this instrument in this sample of substance abusers. We discuss how recent advances in racial identity theory and its measurement may provide an important avenue for understanding the psychological consequences of racial group membership and for examining the potential effects of these factors on treatment response in studies of substance misuse.

Notes

For purposes of this discussion, the term race refers to a socially constructed label that categorizes individuals on the basis of ascribed group membership, and that utilizes individual physical characteristics as a central feature in the definition of groups. Ethnicity and culture refer to forms of cognitive consensus among individuals and may include shared preferences, values, language, history, beliefs, and worldviews [[49]]. The forms of cognitive consensus that promote and sustain affiliations between individuals within ethnic and cultural groups may include, or result in, visible behaviors, such as style of dress and spoken language. These behaviors may be “visible” to members of the group, as well as to “outsiders”—that is, to individuals who do not share the group's consensus. The significance, meaning, and interpretation of these behaviors may be quite different for insiders and outsiders. However, just as physical characteristics contribute to racial categories, these visible behaviors may be utilized in socially constructed labels that categorize individuals on the basis of ascribed membership in ethnic or cultural groups. In the case of ethnic-racial groups, these socially constructed categories may include both physionomic and behavioral elements that are imputed to be characteristic of individuals in the group. Although socially constructed, the ascription of membership to a particular group may have social and psychological consequences for individuals. See also Helms [[47]], [[48]].