Ethnic Identity – Oyserman

Ethnic Identity-Oyserman (Oyserman, et al, 1995) is a 12-item scale which assesses the child's feelings about their racial and ethnic community. There are questions regarding the child's view of their community, the child's connection to the community, and the child's perception of how others outside their community view his or her community.

Abstract: The Ethnic Identity-Oyserman is a 12-item scale adapted from a measure developed by Oyserman, Gant, and Ager (1995). The measure assesses children's feelings about their racial and ethnic community. Specifically, the measure contains questions regarding children's view of their community, connection to the community, and children's perceptions of how others outside of their community view the community. The scale includes three factors: Embedded Achievement, Connectedness, and Awareness of Racism. Each item in the measure ranges from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Scoring procedures to create scales for the Fast Track data were derived from Oyserman, Harrison, and Bybee (2001). The original scales, with 15 items, may be found in Oyserman, Gant, & Ager (1995). The scales were derived from three content domains (connectedness, embedded achievement, and awareness of racism). The Connectedness (Connectedness) scale assesses an individual's "sense of self as a member of an African American community…" (Oyserman, 1995, p. 8). It consists of items 1-4. Embedded Achievement (Achievement) measures an individual's sense of achievement as occurring within the context of being African American. It consists of items 5, 6, 10, & 12. Awareness of Racism (Awareness) measures an individual's "sense of self as subject to prejudice, racism, and exclusion from opportunities by White society" (Oyserman, 1995, p.8). It consists of items 7, 8, 9, &11. The subscales were constructed by taking the mean responses to the items in each subscale. All of the subscales and items here may be used with African American and Caucasian youth. The coefficient alphas for the scales were lower than previously reported for the total sample and for African American youth. Nevertheless, it still appears reasonable to use these subscales for all groups mentioned. Given the small sample sized, it is not advisable to conduct analyses by ethnic group with youth who identify as Hispanic, Native American, or Other.

Who Completed this Measure?: select one

Cohort 1 - Administrative History

  • Year 08 | grade 7 | age 13
  • Year 09 | grade 8 | age 14
  • Year 10 | grade 9 | age 15
  • Year 12 | grade 11 | age 17

Cohort 2 - Administrative History

  • Year 08 | grade 7 | age 13
  • Year 09 | grade 8 | age 14
  • Year 10 | grade 9 | age 15
  • Year 12 | grade 11 | age 17

Cohort 3 - Administrative History

  • Year 08 | grade 7 | age 13
  • Year 09 | grade 8 | age 14
  • Year 10 | grade 9 | age 15
  • Year 12 | grade 11 | age 17

Technical Reports:

Raw Dataset Name: CyAE

Scored Dataset Name: EIOySCc

Keywords:
Community Involvement, Ethnic Stereotypes, Ethnicity, Racial Attitudes, Racial Identification

Is this Measure Available for Public Use?: No

Obtain Measure:

Daphna Oyserman
Associate Professor and Associate Research Scientist
Institute for Social Research
426 Thompson Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1248
Email: daphna@umich.edu