Race Coping
Abstract: The 36-item Race Coping Measure was administered to African American children only. Children were asked about (a) the prevalence of conversations they have had with their parents or other family members about racially hostile situations and (b) the frequency in which parents or other family members provide a variety of coping responses to these racially hostile situations. Six racially hostile situations were presented. The responses for each situation were coded as 1 for "yes" and 0 for "no". For each situation, four coping responses were offered. Children were asked to rate how often their parents or family members told them to do each in response to a racially hostile situation. The responses were coded on a 5-point scale where 0 represented "Never," 1 represented "Less than once a year," 2 represented "A couple of times a year," 3 represented "At least once a month," and 4 represented "At least once a week". The first subscale Cope consists of the sum of the six questions regarding prevalence of conversations about racially hostile situations. Respondents who reported "no" to having conversations with their parents or other family members about all six of the racially hostile situations were given a score of 0. Respondents who reported "yes" to having conversation with their parents (or other family members) about all six of the racially hostile situations were given a score of 6. To create the next four subscales, responses to the racially hostile situation were combined with the corresponding coping responses. The combination of these variables was required to prevent losing those cases who said "no" to the racially hostile situations. For example, if a respondent said "no" to the first question regarding conversations about a hostile situation and scored a "2" on the corresponding question regarding frequency of conversation about coping with particular racially hostile situation, they would get a score of "2" on the new variable. If a respondent said "yes" to the first question regarding conversations about a hostile situation, and scored a "2" on the corresponding question regarding frequency of conversation about coping with particular racially hostile situation, they would get a score of "3" on the new variable. Consequently, the new variables were coded such that "0" represented respondents who said no to having conversations about a racially hostile situation and never to a particular coping response. A "5" represented respondents who said yes to having conversations about a racially hostile situation and at least once a week to a particular coping response. Then, each of these newly created variables were added together for each A, B, C, or D response and then averaged to create the subscales CopeA, CopeB, CopeC, and CopeD. Consequently, the CopeA subscale consists of the mean of 6 six items, and CopeB consists of the mean of 6 items, etc. These subscales ranged from 0 "no message", to 5 "At least once a week". CopeA subscale represents a submissive coping style. CopeB represents an active avoidance coping style. CopeC reflects a contextualized, reality based agentic coping style. CopeD reflects a self-assertion coping style. This measure should only be used with African American youth. The subscales are heavily skewed due to including the racially biases/hostile situation items in with the recoded coping variables. Users of the subscales may consider rescaling the subscales.
Who Completed this Measure?: select one
Cohort 1 - Administrative History
- Year 09 | grade 8 | age 14
Cohort 2 - Administrative History
- Year 09 | grade 8 | age 14
Cohort 3 - Administrative History
- Year 09 | grade 8 | age 14
Technical Reports:
Raw Dataset Name: CyAM
Scored Dataset Name: RCMySCc
Keywords:
African-American Stereotype, Bias, Black Attitudes, Discrimination, Ethnic Stereotypes, Ethnicity, Racial Attitudes, Racial Harassment, Racial Identity, Racism
Is this Measure Available for Public Use?: Yes
Obtain Measure:
Download the measure here
Measure Items and Scales:
| COHORT | Cohort |
| SITE | Study Site |
| TCID | Study ID Number |
| INTID | Interviewer ID Number |
| SITECODE | Actual Code Number Entered |
| c9am1 | Has Your Family Told You That Teachers Expect Blacks To Act Up And Get Bad Grades? |
| c9am1a | You Cant Change Your Views So Dont Try |
| c9am1b | Work Harder So Teachers Look At You That Way |
| c9am1c | Your Smart So Just Do What You Should Be Doing |
| c9am1d | Dont Let Teachers Look Down on You. Stand Up For Yourself |
| c9am1e | Has Your Family Told You Anything Else About What To Do About Teachers? |
| c9am2 | Has Your Family Told You To Never Forget You Are African-American in A White World? |
| c9am2a | Just Try To Get Along With White People |
| c9am2b | Be Careful About Trusting White People |
| c9am2c | You Can Have Friends Of Any Kind, Just Dont Get Too Close |
| c9am2d | Always Stand Up For Your Rights As a Black Person |
| c9am2e | Has Your Family Told You Anything Else About Living In A White World? |
| c9am3 | Has Your Family Told You That Store Employees Might Watch Blacks More Carefully? |
| c9am3a | Its Going To Happen Anyway and Theres Nothing You Can Do |
| c9am3b | Do Look Suspicious And They Might Leave You Alone |
| c9am3c | You Know Your Not A Thief So Pay Them No Mind |
| c9am3d | Confront Them And Tell Them To Leave You Alone |
| c9am3e | Has Your Family Told You Anything Else About Being Watched In Stores? |
| c9am4 | Has Your Family Told You That Blacks Need To Work Harder To Be Successful? |
| c9am4a | Just Play By The Rules |
| c9am4b | Just Be Proud To Do The Best You Can |
| c9am4c | You Are Capable Of Working Hard And It Will Help You Succeed |
| c9am4d | Stand Up For Yourself and Dont Let People Downplay Your Work |
| c9am4e | Has Your Family Told You Anything Else About Having To Work Hard? |
| c9am5 | Has Your Family Told You That Some People Will Treat You Wrong Because Of Race? |
| c9am5a | Theres Nothing You Can Do About It |
| c9am5b | Dont Give Anyone A Reason To Treat You Wrong |
| c9am5c | You Know Your Are A Decent Person |
| c9am5d | Stand Up And Demand That They Treat You Fairly |
| c9am5e | Has Your Family Told You Anything Else About Dealing With People Who Treat You Different? |
| c9am6 | Has Your Family Told You That Police Will Harass You Because Of Your Race? |
| c9am6a | Do What They Tell You And Be Polite |
| c9am6b | Dont Do Anything Suspicious So They Wont Harass You |
| c9am6c | You Know Your Not A Criminal |
| c9am6d | Stand Up For Yourself And Dont Take Any Police Harassment |
| c9am6e | Has Your Family Told You Anything Else About What To Do About Police Harassment |