Perceptions of the African American Experience (PAAX): A New Measure of Adaptive Identities Among African American Men and Women

Abstract

Differential treatment based on race impacts the adoption of prosocial or maladaptive behaviors and attitudes of African Americans, which in turn influences their perceived wellbeing. In essence, the African American experience is shaped by intrapersonal, interpersonal, and institutional social determinants. As such the nature of the African American experience is predicated on the identity formulated and the associated lifestyle adopted by African Americans. To empirically verify this proposition, the newly developed Perceptions of African American Experience (PAAX) scale was tested. The PAAX includes 2 maladaptive and two adaptive subscales that define 4 identities among African American men and women. The maladaptive identities, Depreciated and Vulnerable coping styles, are theoretically connected to risk, unhealthy social determinants and anti-social outcomes. The adaptive identities, Transcendent and Integrated coping styles, involve resiliency characteristics resulting in both healthy and prosocial outcomes. It was hypothesized that the 4 PAAX subscales would show acceptable psychometric properties for internal consistency and validity, but that the 2 higher order dimensions, Risk and Resilience, would emerge with factor analytic approaches. An item analysis demonstrated it is feasible to maintain subscale integrity while retaining only those items from the 4 hypothesized subscales, which produces acceptable internal consistencies. A higher order confirmatory factor analytic approach was then used. The confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesis that for African Americans the 4 adaptive identities load on 2 underlying dimensions, Risk and Resilience. Implications for the future study of the PAAX scale among clinical populations as well as with other racially diverse groups are highlighted.

Cracks in the Ceiling? Historical and Contemporary Trends of African American Deans of Schools of Social Work

“…To investigate the abovementioned salient questions, the authors define several concepts: (1) social justice, as "an ideal condition, in which all members of a society have the same rights, protections, opportunities, obligations, and social benefits" (Barker, 1995, p. 354); (2) racial diversity, as a culture specific concept used to recognize the experiences of nativeborn African Americans historically referred to as Negroes (Briggs et al, 2014); (3) leadership, as " . .…”

“…To investigate the abovementioned salient questions, the authors define several concepts: (1) social justice, as “an ideal condition, in which all members of a society have the same rights, protections, opportunities, obligations, and social benefits” (Barker, 1995, p. 354); (2) racial diversity, as a culture specific concept used to recognize the experiences of native-born African Americans historically referred to as Negroes (Briggs et al, 2014); (3) leadership, as “…often transformational, meaning that it is responsive and adaptive to promoting change in the institution and its relationship with the surrounding environment” (Wolfe & Dilworth, 2015, p. 671); and (4) power as derived through historically oppressive means as well as through creative, collaborative, and subversive means is manifested throughout organizations. It includes sources of interpersonal influence and power that suggest how certain women gained power and emerged as the dominant group in the profession.…”

Do Black Lives Really Matter—To Social Work? Introduction to the Special Edition

“…From our humble beginnings as a country of cultural pluralism, the plight and issues pertaining to African Americans and groups such as Hispanics and Asians were not originally included in the strategic intent of the U.S. Constitution (Mirelowitz, 1979; Steinfeld, 1970). Since African Americans’ imprisoned and forced entrance into American society, structural inequalities, chronic forms of mistreatment, and the lack of access to power and privilege within education, social, economic, and political fronts have historically continued creating exclusionary barriers exposing them to various risks (Briggs et al, 2014).…”

“…Therefore, since the profession has been struggling for quite some time to promote issues and concerns germane and unique to African Americans (Mirelowitz, 1979)—why have these particular concerns been presented to us currently as professional challenges? It is our position that given the lived African American experience in this country (Briggs et al, 2014; Davis, 2016b), issues of race, and the plight of African Americans, and other historically marginalized and oppressed racial and ethnic groups should be more mainstream to social work, in general. Thus, we contend that such issues ought to be inculcated and saturated within and across all social work practice venues—including contextual and familial issues, practice values, our curricula, best, and/or promising practices, research, and policy.…”