Effect of demographic variables on the racial identity development of adolescent African-American males

This study examined the racial identity development of adolescent African-American males as affected by demographic variables. Participants were from one of two high schools: one was predominantly White, one was predominantly African-American. Participants were administered the Racial Identity Attitude Scale (RIAS) (Parham & Helms, 1981) to measure their racial identity attitudes (Helms, 1985). Following the completion of the RIAS, participants were selected for semi-structured interviews to gain contextual understanding for their patterns of responding on the RIAS. Results show that the racial composition of the participants high school impacts their measured racial identity attitude. The racial composition of their peer group, and the racial composition of their peer group did not impact their racial identity attitudes.