Authoritarianism in Black and White: Testing the Cross-Racial Validity of the Child Rearing Scale

被引:59
作者
Perez, Efren O. [1 ]
Hetherington, Marc J. [1 ]
机构
[1] Vanderbilt Univ, Dept Polit Sci, Nashville, TN 37203 USA
关键词
MEASUREMENT INVARIANCE; EQUIVALENCE; ATTITUDES;
D O I
10.1093/pan/mpu002
中图分类号
D0 [政治学、政治理论];
学科分类号
0302 ; 030201 ;
摘要
Using a scale of child rearing preferences, scholars find that African Americans are far more authoritarian than Whites. We argue that this racial gap in authoritarianism is largely a measurement artifact. The child rearing scale now used to measure authoritarianism is cross-racially invalid because it draws heavily on a metaphor about hierarchy. Akin to someone who favors enforcing conformity in a child, the authoritarian is thought to be inclined toward enforcing conformity in social subordinates. In both cases, one's perspective is drawn from a position of relative power. We believe this metaphor is effective among members of a majority racial group because individual dominance at home meshes with group dominance in society. For members of a racial minority, we believe this metaphor breaks down. Using multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, we establish that Blacks and Whites construe the child rearing items differently. Consequently, authoritarianism correlates highly with the things it should for Whites, but rarely so for Blacks. Using an illegal immigration experiment, we then show divergent patterns of intolerance based on the same child rearing scale. Our results highlight measurement's role in producing large racial gaps in authoritarianism, while illuminating the racial boundaries of the child rearing scale.
引用
收藏
页码:398 / 412
页数:15
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