Development and Validation of the Social Justice Involvement Scale (SJIS)

The aim of this study was to create a self-report assessment comprised of items that reflect the constructs of racial identity, empowerment, and concepts of social justice theory across the spectrum of personal and systemic relationships and across the dimensions of motivation to change (importance, confidence, and desire). Thirty self-report items were generated based on behavioral science literature and feedback from a panel of experts. The reliability and validity of the SJIS were examined with a sample of 47 African American student participants. These University of Cincinnati students also completed an Organizational Activity Questionnaire, the Empowerment Scale (Rogers et al., 1996), and the Racial Awareness Identity Scale (Helms & Parham, 1996). Following analysis of the scores from the 47 participants, nine additional items were removed from the final version of the Social Justice Involvement Scale. This 21 item form of the SJIS resulted in an internal consistency test reliability of α = .877. The results also provided support for the instrument’s convergent validity with significant correlations between the SJIS and (a) reported Organizational Activity (r = .27, p . <034), (b) Roger’s Empowerment Scale (r = .58, p < .005), and (c) the two most relevant subscales of the Racial Awareness Identity Scale (Encounter, r = .37, p < .005 and Internalization, r = .38, p < .004). Psychometric analysis suggests that the SJIS may be a viable instrument for assessing levels of social justice involvement. Discussion of the results and suggestions for further research are included.

Name thesis:degree_name

EdD

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Counselor Education

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Cincinnati

Year dc:date

2012

Author dc:creator

• Dalila, Nzingha

Contributors dc:contributor

• Yager, Geoffrey

• Counseling Psychology
• Social Justice
• Racial Identity
• Empowerment
• Assessment
• African American
• Motivation

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1354550966

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:ucin1354550966