The relationship among racial identity attitudes, religious orientation and ego identity status in Black college students.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In the theoretical and empirical literature that documents the importance of the formation of an ego identity, particularly during one's college years (Wilson & Constantine, 1999; Erikson, 1968), little attention has been paid to the ego identity formation of Black college students. Moreover, the existing mainstream literature on identity formation treats identity as universal without accounting for cultural characteristics such as race and religion (Branch, 1999; Carter, 1995).
The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to explore the relationship between two important cultural influences on the ego identity development in Black college students, namely racial identity (one's psychological orientation to race) and religious orientation (one's psychological orientation towards one's religious/spiritual beliefs); and (2) to explore the relationship between racial identity attitudes, religious orientation and ego identity status.
Subjects were 270 Black American college students from 2-year community colleges, 4-year colleges, and 4-year universities in the Northeast who completed a questionnaire packet that included: a Personal Data Sheet, The Black Racial Identity Attitude Scale-L Long Form (RIAS-B Helms & Parham, 1985), The Three Dimensional Measure of Religious Orientation - Simplified Procedure (Batson & Ventis, 1982), and The Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status (EOM-EIS2) (Bennion and Adams) (1986).
Multiple regression analyses were conducted for the first research question, and results indicated that racial identity attitudes were predictive of religious orientation. Gender also significantly impacted the relationships between these variables. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted for the second research question and results indicated that both racial identity and religious orientation significantly predicted ego identity status. Gender also significantly impacted the relationships among these variables.
These findings support the need for psychologically based conceptualizations of race and religion in the exploration of ego identity formation in Black college students. Implications for psychology and research are discussed in view of these findings.