It’s possible to measure racism! Analysis of measures and scales of the racism construct

This research aims to analyze the construction and validation of measures and scales of the racism construct through a systematic literature review. The purpose is to examine how these instruments are built based on statistical recommendations for scale development.

Methodology

A systematic literature review followed well-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data were collected from databases available on the Portal de Periódicos Capes, covering a period up to December 2023 (with no start date limitation). After removing duplicate articles and applying the defined filters, six studies were selected for the analysis of scale construction.

Findings

Three specific scales were identified to measure and evaluate the racism construct: the Modern Racism Scale, the Symbolic Racism Scale, and the Ethno-Racial Attitudes Scale. Although there is a predominance of studies on the Modern Racism Scale, other instruments were excluded from the analysis corpus due to non-compliance with inclusion criteria, especially related to article availability.

Originality

Among the 82 analyzed articles, those focused on measures and scales of the racism construct do not provide an analysis of the development of these instruments. This study brings to light an analysis of the construction and validation of these measures and scales.

Racism; Scale construction; Measures; Measurement scales; Construct

YEAR	AUTHORS	TITLE	JOURNAL
1996	Mcneilly et al	The perceived racism scale: a multidimensional assessment of the experience of white racism among African Americans	Ethnicity & disease
1998	Navas, Maria Soledad	New measurement instruments for the new racism	International Journal of Social Psychology
2002	Henry, P. J.; Sears, D. O.	The Symbolic Racism 2000 scale	Political Psychology
2006	Santos, Walberto Silva dos et al.	The modern racism scale: adaptation to Brazilian context	Psychology in Studies
2007	Cárdenas, Manuel.	The Modern Racism Scale: Psychometric Properties and Its Relationship with Psychosocial Variables	Univ. Psychol.
2016	Campo-Arias, A. et al.	Psychometric assessment of a brief Modern Racism Scale	Revista de salud public
2019	Fernandes, S. C. S.; Pereira, M. E.	Ethnic-racial attitudes: Elaboration and evidence of validity of a measure of Brazilian racism	Psico

STEPS	STEP DESCRIPTION
1	Clarity of what is the intended measure
2	Creating the Scale Item Set
3	Determining the measurement/response format
4	Review of starter items by experts in the field
5	Consider including validation items
6	Conducting pre-tests
7	Evaluation of items
8	Optimize scale size

Guidelines proposals per DeVellis (2017)Devellis, R.F. (2017). Scale Development: theory and applications. 4th. Sage. ed.	Modern Racism Scale				Symbolic Racism Scale	Ethnic-Racial Attitudes Scale	Perceived Racism Scale
	Navas (1998)Navas, Maria Loneliness. (1998). New measurement instruments for the new racism, International Journal of Social Psychology, 13:2, 233-239. https://doi.org/10.1174/021347498760350731 https://doi.org/10.1174/0213474987603507...	Santos et al. (2006)Santos, Walberto Silva et al. (2006). Modern racism scale: adaptation to the Brazilian context. Study Psychology [online]. 11(3), 637-645. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1413-73722006000300020. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1413-7372200600...	Cárdenas (2007)Cárdenas, Manuel. (2007). The Modern Racism Scale: Psychometric Properties and Its Relationship with Psychosocial Variables. Univ. Psychol., Bogotá, 6(2), 255-262. http://pepsic.bvsalud.org/scielo.p hp?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1657-9 2672007000200005&lng=pt&nrm=iso. http://pepsic.bvsalud.org/scielo.p hp?sc...	Campo-Arias et al. (2016)Campo-Arias, A., Herazo, E., & Oviedo, H. C. (2016). Valoración psicométrica de la Escala Breve para Racismo Moderno [Psychometric assessment of a brief Modern Racism Scale]. Revista de salud publica (Bogota, Colombia), 18(3), 437-446. https://doi.org/10.15446/rsap.v18n3.41291 https://doi.org/10.15446/rsap.v18n3.4129...	Henry and Sears (2002)Henry, P. J., Sears, D. O. (2002). The symbolic racism 2000 scale. Political Psychology, 23, 253-283.	Fernandes and Pereira (2019)Fernandes, S. C. S., & Pereira, M. E. (2019). Atitudes étnico-raciais: elaboração e evidências de validade de uma medida do racismo à brasileira/Ethnic-racial attitudes: Elaboration and evidence of validity of a measure of Brazilian racism. Psico, 50(4), e28624. https://doi.org/10.15448/1980-8623.2019.4.28624. https://doi.org/10.15448/1980-8623.2019....	McNeilly et al. (1996)McNeilly, M. D. et al. (1996). The perceived racism scale: a multidimensional assessment of the experience of white racism among African. Ethnicity & disease, 6(1-2), 154-166; 1996. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8882844/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8882844/...
Clarity of what is the intended measure	☑	☑	☑	☑	☑	☑	☑
Creating the Scale Item Set	X	X	X	X	X	☑	X
Determining the measurement/response format	☑	☑	☑	☑	☑	☑	☑
Review of starter items by experts in the field	X	☑	X	☑	X	☑	X
Consider including validation items	X	☑	☑	X	☑	☑	X
Conducting pre-tests	☑	☑	☑	☑	X	☑	☑
Evaluation of items	☑	☑	☑	☑	X	☑	☑
Optimize scale size	X	☑	X	☑	☑	☑	☑

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E-mail: rea@ufsm.br

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[1] Authors

1 – Karina Francine Marcelino: Institution: Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina – Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil; PhD student in Administration at the State University of Santa Catarina - Center for Administration and Socioeconomic Sciences; E-mail: karinamarcelinoo@gmail.com

2 – Mário César Barreto Moraes: Institution: Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina – Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil; PhD in Production Engineering from the Federal University of Santa Catarina; E-mail: mcbmstrategos@gmail.com