Racial identity attitudes and self-esteem of black adolescents in residential care: an exploratory study

Experiences and Challenges Related to Residential Care and the Expression of Cultural Identity of Adolescent Boys at a Child and Youth Care Centre (Cycc) in Johannesburg

“…While noting the good done by children's homes, it is also important to discuss the challenges faced by those homes. Most of those homes strive to accommodate every child's culture, beliefs system and heritage, but they often fail as a result of staff constraints and inadequate resources (Robinson, 2000). And this is worrying, because some of the children get placed in the centres without understanding even a single word or language, especially since they enter the system at very young ages (Robinson, 2000).…”

“…Most of those homes strive to accommodate every child's culture, beliefs system and heritage, but they often fail as a result of staff constraints and inadequate resources (Robinson, 2000). And this is worrying, because some of the children get placed in the centres without understanding even a single word or language, especially since they enter the system at very young ages (Robinson, 2000). This means that they have to be taught from the scratch and this invariably leads to a loss of their own culture and belief systems.…”

“…This makes work with their clients or patients less effective (Robinson, 2000). The inability of some professionals to understand indigenous languages has negative effects on children and their cultural identity (Robinson, 2000).…”

“…However, it was noted with great concern that some of those children lose their cultural identity in the process. The reason is that some of these children enter the alternative care system at a very young age, and given the lack of culturally diverse staff members in CYCCs, cultural preservation and maintenance become challenging (Robinson, 2000;Schmid, 2006). Robinson (2001) observed that lack of understanding of cross-cultural and black perspectives limits social workers in addressing the needs of children in residential care settings.…”

Evaluating the Psychometric Properties of the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) within the United Kingdom

“…However, details regarding the earliest factor analyses of the RIAS in the U.S. were never published (Cokley, 2007). Similarly, Robinson (2000) administered the RIAS to two Black samples in the U.K. but did not report results of factor analyses. As researchers begin to acknowledge the distinctive social and psychological experiences of European, African, and Asian descent groups in the U.K. (Modood et al, 1997), critical evaluation of measures of racial identity will be needed.…”