Part 1:
1. Choose a paper describing the development or validation of a measure of relevance in health disparities research (please give the full citation and/or upload the paper if that's possible).
LaFont, S. R., Brondolo, E., Dumas, A. K., Lynk, N. C., & Gump, B. B. (2017). The development and initial validation of the child perceived discrimination questionnaire. International Journal of Culture and Mental Health, 1-12.
2. What was the definition of the construct?
Perceived discrimination involves exposure to a broad range of experiences including those related to stigmatization, exclusion, social distancing, harassment or violent acts within individual or institutional contexts, committed by peers and can lead to poor psychological and physical health. The authors developed the Child Perceived Discrimination Questionnaire (CPDQ) which aimed to provide a more nuanced measurement by assessing two dimensions of everyday discrimination from both child and adult sources.
3. How did the authors provide evidence on the validity of the measure? Could you think of additional approaches to validating the measure?
The authors examined the associations between the CPDQ and a number of theoretically related emotional, health behavior and social variables that have been shown to be related to discrimination in studies of children and adults. Perceived discrimination was negatively associated with depressive symptoms, externalizing symptoms, internalizing symptoms, and SES, indicating that children with lower SES reported greater perceived discrimination.
One way the CPDQ could be additionally validated would be to assess specific types of discrimination (e.g., racial/ethnic). The authors also suggest the importance of having the children make attributions as to the reasons they were discriminated against.
4. How did the authors provide evidence on the reliability of the measure? Could you think of additional approaches to evaluating the reliability of the measure?
The authors examined the internal consistency of the scale as the measure of reliability. They conducted tests of known groups differences, hypothesizing that Black children would report more perceived discrimination than White children.
The reliability of these measure would need to be studied in a larger sample to further evaluate the reliability of the measure. They could evaluate the reliability of these measures in a more diverse or international community, given that the results came from a sample of children living in low- to middle- income neighborhoods in a mid-sized northeast city.
5. Describe the implications of a lack of measurement validity or reliability for future research applications.
Poor validity of these measures could potentially miss the nuanced dimensions of what specific variables most greatly impact perceived discrimination in children. A measurement with poor reliability would result in analyses rendering different dimensions of experience that impact perceived discrimination. Developing any sort of intervention that then applied these findings may be less effective (and/or even potentially harmful in generalizing variables too broadly across and onto groups/communities) and/or applicable across a variety of community types.
Part 2:
1. Find a paper describing a health disparity (please give the full citation or, even better, upload the paper so everyone else can look at it too)
Molina, K. M., & James, D. (2016). Discrimination, internalized racism, and depression: A comparative study of African American and Afro-Caribbean adults in the US. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 19(4), 439-461.
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1368430216641304
2. Summarize the construct and measurement of the dimension of disparity (e.g., racial inequalities?, SES inequalities?) and the outcome measured (e.g., self-rated health).
The study examined both the direct and interactive effects of everyday discrimination and internalized racism on past-year major depressive disorder, in addition to examining whether these associations differed by ethnic group membership. The study utilized nationally representative data of Afro-Caribbean (N = 1,418) and African American (N = 3,570) adults from the National Survey of American Life.
Measurement: The amount of experienced discrimination according to the National Survey of American Life.
Outcome: Experienced discrimination and its relationship with odds of past-year MDD
3. What is the evidence for the validity and reliability of the measures.
Using one previously validated measure (EDS; Williams, Jackson, & Anderson, 1997), participants rated the frequency with which they encountered unfair treatment on day-to-day basis on the 10-item Everyday Discrimination Scale on a 6-point Likert scale. They also rated the extent to which they agreed with statements such as intelligent, hardworking, and proud of themselves and compared Afro-Caribbean with African American adults. This measure was not explicitly validated in the study.
4. What is the reference category used for the disparity measure (ie, who is the comparison group)? Why does this reference category make sense (or not) for this research question?
Reference category: The reference categories African American and Afro-Caribbean adults, were appropriate given that aim of the study is to examine how racism contributes to the mental health of different populations included within the “Black” racial category. These groups were chosen due to the fact that Afro-Caribbean persons in the US have higher levels of socioeconomic standing, including education and income, while also reporting higher prevalence rates of lifetime depression and depressive symptoms when compared to African Americans. This group choice seemed appropriate and nuanced given the assessment of past year MDD.
5. How is the disparity quantified or measured? Is this an absolute or relative measure or are both provided? Describe which type of measure you would prefer for this research area, or, if both, why.
They conducted weighted multivariable logistic regressions to model the odds of meeting criteria for past-year MDD (which first examined the main (direct) effects of everyday discrimination and internalized racism on past-year MDD). The OR’s is a relative measure and measured the differences between the groups. The also calculated the correlations of the main study variables for African American and Afro-Caribbean respondents. These were also relative measures in that they correlated assessments of continuous variables of the two sub-groups and do not include measures that provide a context in which to judge the public health impact of relative health disparities. However, given the specific nature of the study, but of these measures were appropriate for the study design.