Date of Award

8-2022

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Gabriel Kuperminc

Second Advisor

Sierra Carter

Third Advisor

Natalie Watson-Singleton

Fourth Advisor

Lee Branum-Martin

Fifth Advisor

Laura McKee

Abstract

The Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity (MIBI), derived from the Multidimensional Model of Racial Identity (MMRI), is frequently used to evaluate the meaning African Americans ascribe to race. The scale was developed for use with African American college students from predominantly working- or middle-class socioeconomic backgrounds and has primarily been studied with similar college samples. Despite its popularity, mixed findings regarding the scale’s psychometric properties call into question the extent to which the MIBI adequately captures the complexity of the MMRI for a wide range of African Americans. Many scholars have called for an examination of the MIBI’s applicability with a more representative sample of African Americans from diverse age, gender, socioeconomic and educational backgrounds (e.g., Fischer & Morandi, 2001; Sellers et al., 1997) and clinical and community samples (Lewis, Mathews, & Jones, 2022). The current study responds to this call by examining the psychometric properties of a shortened version of the MIBI (MIBI-S) in a sample of 196 African American women who are middle-aged, from poor or working-class socioeconomic backgrounds with low educational attainment recruited from a clinical setting. Findings revealed that the MIBI-S scores closely map onto the first-order seven-factor structure proposed in the MMRI framework and thus evidenced acceptable internal consistency and structural validity in a clinical sample of African American Women. However, the higher-order factor structure proposed in the MMRI framework was not supported by these data. Clinical implications and recommendations for future Black racial identity research and MIBI scale refinement are discussed.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.57709/29569250

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