Ethnic Identity Development Measures: Cross Racial Identity Scale

The Cross Racial Identity Scale (CRIS) is a 40-item self-administered scale developed to measure racial identity attitudes of people in the United States. More specifically, each identity type measured in the CRIS reveals unique racial perspectives as to how people identify themselves in relation to their racial group. Cross first articulated nigrescence theory in 1971 and revised his original theory in 1991. The subsequent development of the CRIS yielded an expanded model of nigrescence. As a result of the connection of the scale to theory (and vice versa), the CRIS and the expanded nigrescence model are linked together (e.g., for interpretation) and not to previous versions of the model or prior scales. The development of the CRIS occurred over a 5-year period. The CRIS items were developed by the scale authors, rated by experts, and refined through rigorous phases of scale development. At each phase, the CRIS was administered to college students from two predominantly White universities. The current version of CRIS consists of 40 (30 CRIS and 10 filler) items answered on a seven-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 7 (strongly disagree). Each of the six subscales of the CRIS, composed of five items, represents six of the nine nigrescence identities from the expanded nigrescence model. The subscales are examples of three different identity types: preencounter (assimilation, miseducation, self-hatred), immersion-emersion (anti-White), and internalization (Afrocentricity, multiculturalist inclusive).

According to the expanded nigrescence theory, racial identity is significantly shaped by reference group orientation (RGO), rather than personal identity (PI) based on personality features. As a function of a RGO, race is manifested differently among the six identities with a varying degree of race salience and affiliation to community. For example, race from the assimilation perspective is either invisible or deemed unimportant because of an RGO of being American. The RGO in the immersion-emersion stage changes to a pro-Black, anti-White perspective. A positive identity becomes more salient along different perspectives in the internalization stages, whereas anti-White attitudes fade away as a multicultural perspective emerges. For example, from the multicultural perspective, an RGO of being American is as important as an RGO of being Black. Because racial identity is conceptualized as dynamic and fluid, the CRIS was developed as a multidimensional scale in which a person's identity is interpreted with a profile comprising all six subscale scores (e.g., through cluster analysis). Subscale scores are obtained by summing items on a subscale and dividing by 5. If comparisons across subscores are desired, one may either use mean scores from each subscale or convert raw scores to standard or z scores. Vandiver and colleagues have documented [Page 186]estimated reliability and validity of the CRIS. All six subscale scores were shown to reach internal consistency on or above .78, while keeping subscale intercorrelations below the .30 range. Factor analyses tended to favor the current six-factor structure of the CRIS over other models. Also, preliminary evidence supports convergent validity and discriminant validity of the CRIS. Directions for future research with the CRIS include continued revision of nigrescence theory, research on populations other than college students, use of the CRIS in clinical practice, and long-term replications.

...