Introducing a New Assessment Tool for Measuring Ethnic-Racial Identity: The Cross Ethnic-Racial Identity Scale–Adult (CERIS-A)

Abstract

In this article, we examined the psychometric properties of scores on a new instrument, the Cross Ethnic-Racial Identity Scale-Adult (CERIS-A) for use across different ethnic and racial groups. The CERIS-A measures seven ethnic-racial identity attitudes—assimilation, miseducation, self-hatred, anti-dominant, ethnocentricity, multiculturalist inclusive, and ethnic-racial salience. Participants consisted of 803 adults aged 18 to 76, including African Americans (19.3%), Asian Americans (17.6%), European Americans (37.0%), and Latino/as (17.8%). Analyses indicated that CERIS-A scores were reliable, and configural, metric, and scalar invariance were supported for the seven factors across gender; however, Miseducation, Ethnic-Racial Salience, and Ethnocentricity scores achieved only metric invariance across ethnic-racial groups. Self-Hatred, Ethnic-Racial Salience, Anti-Dominant, and Ethnocentricity scores were significantly and meaningfully related to race-based rejection sensitivity scores, providing evidence of convergent validity. We concluded that the CERIS-A is a potentially useful instrument for examining ethnic-racial identity attitudes across multiple racial/ethnic subgroups in the United States.