Psychosocial Costs of Racism to Whites Scale (PCRW): Construction and Initial Validation

This investigation reports on the development and initial validation of the Psychosocial Costs of Racism to Whites Scale (PCRW), which operationalizes the idea that racism has a host of psychosocial costs for White individuals. Data from 727 participants were collected in 3 interrelated studies that subjected the items to the rigors of both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Exploratory factor analysis results suggested a 16-item scale with 3 factors as follows: (a) White Empathic Reactions Toward Racism, (b) White Guilt, and (c) White Fear of Others. Results also indicated that participant responses were not simply reflections of socially desirable responding. Confirmatory factor analysis suggested that the 3-factor model was a good fit for the data. Estimates of internal consistency, temporal stability, and construct validity are provided.