Assessing experienced discrimination in a college student population.

Experienced discrimination based on identity and appearance (or discrimination experience) is critical to assess among the college student population given its relationship to six key components of the college student experience. Investigating this variable requires the use of a psychometrically sound scale that demonstrates adequate validity and sensitivity; however, one of the most commonly used measures to assess discrimination experience in undergraduates—the Everyday Discrimination Scale (EDS; Williams et al., 1997)—suffers issues related to these two key scale properties. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to develop a novel scale to measure discrimination experience in college students—the Academia Discrimination Experience Scale (ADES)—in order to improve upon the validity and sensitivity of the EDS. It was hypothesized that the ADES would produce a good fit to a unidimensional confirmatory factor analysis model and provide high information in item response theory analyses. Further, it was hypothesized that the ADES would demonstrate convergent correlations with variables tapping the six key components of the college student experience. Finally, it was hypothesized that the ADES would demonstrate sensitivity to detecting significant differences between groups with well-documented experiences of discrimination and groups with less documentation. All hypotheses were supported by the results of the present study, except for the hypothesis regarding significant correlations with the criterion variables. Although the ADES demonstrated promising features (i.e., the scale has a good factor structure, demonstrates high information across varying response levels, and is sensitive to detecting group differences), the scale failed to meet the criterion for convergent validity. The paper ends with a discussion regarding implications and limitations of this study as well as possible directions for future research.

Name thesis:degree_name

Psy.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Grantor

Baylor University.

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Pizzuto, Alexandra E., 1995-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Sanford, Keith Philip.

• Experienced discrimination.
• Discrimination experience.
• College students.

Statement dc:rights

• Baylor University works are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. Contact libraryquestions@baylor.edu for inquiries about permission.

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2104/12780

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:baylor-ir.tdl.org:2104/12780