Cultural and Racial Experiences of Socialization Scale (CARES)

1. Abstract

The Cultural and Racial Experiences of Socialization Scale (CARES), conceptualized and developed by Keisha L. Bentley-Edwards and Howard C. Stevenson (2013), is a sophisticated multidimensional psychometric instrument designed to capture the complex, contemporary, and bidirectional processes of racial socialization and cultural transmission among African American adolescents and emerging adults. Expanding upon foundational instruments such as the Scale of Racial Socialization for African American Adolescents (SORS-A; Stevenson, 1994), the CARES operationalizes racial socialization beyond monolithic parental messaging to encompass multidirectional transmissions received from diverse social agents, including mothers, fathers, extended kinship networks, academic figures, peers, and digital or mass media platforms.

The inventory comprises 35 self-report items evaluated across five theoretically driven and empirically substantiated subscales: Racial Protection, Cultural Insights, Racial Stereotyping, Bicultural Coping, and Old School Basics. The assessment utilizes a dual-inquiry tracking protocol: respondents quantify the frequency of received messages using a 3-point frequency scale (Never, A Few Times, Lots of Times) and simultaneously identify the social transmission source across nine categorical vectors (Mother/Guardian, Father/Guardian, Grandparent, Sibling, Teacher/Professor, Other Adult, Friend/Peer, Media, or No one told me). Psychometric evaluations across diverse adolescent and collegiate populations demonstrate solid construct and criterion validity, with empirical reliability coefficients ranging from moderate to high across the subscales (e.g., Cultural Insights α = .78; Racial Protection α = .75; Bicultural Coping α = .60; Old School Basics α = .56; and Racial Stereotyping α = .48 in developmental validation cohorts). The CARES serves as an indispensable tool for clinical, educational, and developmental psychologists examining the protective, compensatory, and promotive mechanisms of racial socialization against systemic oppression, colorism, and race-related stress.

2. Keywords

Cultural and Racial Experiences of Socialization Scale, CARES, racial socialization, ethnic socialization, Howard C. Stevenson, Keisha L. Bentley-Edwards, African American mental health, racial coping, bicultural competence, psychometrics

3. Authors

The Cultural and Racial Experiences of Socialization Scale (CARES) was conceptualized and developed by prominent developmental and counseling psychologists specializing in African American racial identity, stress coping, and developmental psychopathology:

• Keisha L. Bentley-Edwards, Ph.D. — Associate Professor of General Internal Medicine and Co-Director of the Center for Health Equity Research at Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. Bentley-Edwards is an internationally recognized developmental psychologist whose research investigates how structural racism, cultural resilience, and racial socialization influence physical and cardiovascular health, educational attainment, and psychosocial outcomes for Black Americans across the life course.
• Howard C. Stevenson, Ph.D. — Constance Clayton Professor of Urban Education and Professor of Africana Studies at the Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Stevenson is the Executive Director of the Racial Empowerment Collaborative (REC) and a preeminent clinical psychologist renowned for formulating the Theoretical Framework of Racial Encounter Coping Appraisal and Socialization (RECAST) and developing interventions that cultivate racial literacy and acute stress-reduction strategies among minority youth and families.

4. Purpose

The fundamental purpose of the Cultural and Racial Experiences of Socialization Scale (CARES) is to provide a nuanced, contemporary, and ecologically valid assessment of the direct, indirect, and tacit racial communications transmitted to Black individuals within modern American society. Historically, classical models of racial-ethnic socialization concentrated almost exclusively on proactive parental transmission occurring during childhood, often focusing strictly on racial pride or overt warnings of discrimination. However, ecological systems theories demonstrate that emerging adults and adolescents navigate a complex informational ecology where messages regarding race, systemic racism, colorism, intragroup dynamics, and cultural survival originate from multidirectional nodes within their broader environment.

In clinical and developmental psychology, the CARES satisfies a critical diagnostic and exploratory function. Clinical practitioners working with African American adolescents and young adults must navigate the pervasive impacts of race-based traumatic stress, microaggressions, and institutional barriers. The CARES allows clinicians to assess the protective buffers and potential vulnerabilities embedded within an individual’s socialization history. For instance, high exposure to Racial Protection messages alongside robust Cultural Insights can foster adaptive racial literacy and emotional resilience, whereas an unbuffered inundation of internalizing Racial Stereotyping messages without adequate contextualization may correlate with internalized racism, depressive symptomatology, or academic self-handicapping.

In research contexts, the CARES enables empirical investigation into developmental transitions, such as the shift from secondary education into predominantly White institutions (PWIs) of higher education or professional employment sectors. Academic achievement, psychological well-being, imposter phenomenon, and interpersonal coping strategies are heavily mediated by the racial socialization schemas individuals deploy when encountering structural or interpersonal discrimination. By measuring both the content/frequency of racialized messages and their respective transmission sources (e.g., parental vs. digital/media vs. peers), the CARES allows researchers to conduct sophisticated multivariate analyses examining source-specific socialization effects on resilience, socio-emotional adjustment, and cognitive appraisal mechanisms.

5. Psychological Construct

The CARES operationalizes racial and ethnic socialization as a multidimensional construct comprising cognitive, behavioral, affective, and systemic understandings of race within an oppressive societal hierarchy. Rather than treating racial socialization as a monolithic protective shield, the CARES conceptualizes socialization messages across five distinct qualitative dimensions:

Racial Protection

The Racial Protection subscale measures communications intended to prepare African American youth for the realities of racial discrimination, institutional biases, and societal inequity. Rooted conceptually in what the broader literature terms “preparation for bias,” this dimension assesses messages that explicitly warn individuals about racial barriers in the labor market, justice system, and educational spheres, while concurrently providing behavioral scripts to mitigate harm. It encompasses pragmatic strategies for survival and self-regulation in hostile environments, such as monitoring one’s emotional expression or navigating White institutional spaces without inciting punitive reactions. Illustrative items include: “Whites make it hard for people to get ahead in this world” (Item 10) and “Racism is real, and you have to understand it or it will hurt you” (Item 33).

Cultural Insights

The Cultural Insights dimension operationalizes communications centered on cultural pride, historical awareness, Pan-African connectivity, and the vital role of Black heritage in psychological preservation. This construct aligns closely with traditional models of “cultural socialization,” emphasizing racial legacy, collective memory, and proactive resistance through historical knowledge. Rather than focusing merely on passive celebratory themes, Cultural Insights emphasizes that historical awareness is an active defensive weapon against marginalization. Illustrative items include: “Schools should be required to teach all children about Black history” (Item 2) and “Knowing your African heritage is important for the survival of Black people” (Item 24).

Racial Stereotyping

The Racial Stereotyping subscale captures messages that reflect internal racial biases, colorism, intragroup tensions, and the uncritical internalization of dominant racial tropes. Unique to modern socialization instruments, this dimension recognizes that youth are routinely exposed to detrimental or limiting racial narratives originating from both external societal institutions (e.g., mass media) and internal community discourse. These messages often reinforce colorist hierarchies (privileging lighter skin complexions), gendered racial tropes (e.g., hypersexualization of Black men or materialism of Black women), and intra-diasporic conflict. Illustrative items include: “Life is easier for light-skinned Black people than it is for dark-skinned Black people” (Item 11), “Sports are the only way for Black kids to get out of the hood” (Item 14), and “Black men just want sex” (Item 15).

Bicultural Coping

The Bicultural Coping construct operationalizes behavioral adaptations, strategic code-switching, and emotional management required to negotiate success within mainstream, Eurocentric environments while attempting to maintain racial integrity. It acknowledges the pragmatic compromises individuals are often socialized to make to survive academically and professionally, alongside cautionary perspectives regarding interpersonal dynamics across racial lines. This subscale measures the psychological negotiation between assimilation, strategic accommodation, and emotional suppression. Illustrative items include: “Fitting into school or work means swallowing your anger when you see racism” (Item 8) and “Sometimes you have to make yourself less threatening to make White people around you comfortable” (Item 31).

Old School Basics

The Old School Basics subscale captures traditional, intergenerational values grounded in African American communalism, spiritual resilience, extended family obligations, and biblical or proverbial wisdom. These messages represent foundational, enduring life philosophies historically transmitted by elders and community matriarchs/patriarchs to instill moral fortitude, character preservation, and ancestral accountability. Illustrative items include: “‘Don’t forget who your people are because you may need them someday'” (Item 20) and “‘Train up a child in the way he should go, and he will not turn away from it'” (Item 28).

6. Theoretical Framework

The theoretical architecture of the CARES is anchored primarily in Howard C. Stevenson’s Racial Encounter Coping Appraisal and Socialization Theory (RECAST) (Stevenson, 2014; Stevenson & Arrington, 2009), synthesized with Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory and classical developmental frameworks of minority identity formation (Boykin & Toms, 1985; Spencer et al., 1997).

The RECAST model posits that racial encounters, systemic microaggressions, and institutional exclusion represent acute and chronic stressors requiring distinct cognitive appraisals and regulatory coping strategies. Stevenson asserts that racial socialization serves as an essential protective mediator that builds “racial literacy”—the ability to read, recast, and resolve racially stressful encounters. Under the RECAST model, racial socialization is not a static psychological inoculation; it is an ongoing, dynamic appraisal process. When an adolescent encounters racial hostility, their socialization history dictates whether they experience debilitating racial stress or activate protective cultural coping mechanisms to de-escalate psychological trauma.

Furthermore, Boykin and Toms’ (1985) seminal Triple Quandary Theory deeply informs the operational structure of the CARES. The Triple Quandary posits that African American socialization occurs across three distinct, competing domains of negotiation:

1. The Mainstream/Eurocentric domain, where individuals must internalize the functional competencies necessary to succeed in standard economic and civic institutions.
2. The Minority/Oppressed domain, which involves cognitive appraisal of systemic oppression, structural disenfranchisement, and racialized barriers, prompting protective strategies.
3. The Afrocultural/Communal domain, encompassing indigenous cultural values, rhythm, interconnectedness, extended kinship, and ancestral pride that exist independently of White cultural standards.

The CARES directly mirrors this triadic experience: subscales like Bicultural Coping address the mainstream domain; Racial Protection addresses the minority/oppression domain; and Cultural Insights and Old School Basics embody the afrocultural communal domain. Furthermore, by integrating ecological models, Bentley-Edwards and Stevenson acknowledge that modern emerging adults do not reside within isolated nuclear units; rather, their socialization is continuously co-constructed across exosystemic and macrosystemic interfaces, including digital media, educational structures, and inter-ethnic peer cultures.

7. Validity

Empirical evaluations of the CARES have established robust construct, convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity across adolescent and young adult cohorts (Bentley-Edwards & Stevenson, 2013; Laurent, 2016):

• Construct Validity: Exploratory and confirmatory factor structures demonstrate distinct clustering around the theorized latent constructs. Construct validity is evidenced by the distinct differentiation between protective cultural communications (Cultural Insights, Old School Basics) and systemic caution/negotiation strategies (Racial Protection, Bicultural Coping), confirming that African American youth differentiate between proactive identity-affirming communications and defensive survival messaging.
• Convergent Validity: Statistically significant correlations have been established between CARES subscales and established measures of racial identity, such as the Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity (MIBI; Sellers et al., 1998) and the Scale of Racial Socialization for African American Adolescents (SORS-A; Stevenson, 1994). Specifically, the Cultural Insights subscale correlates positively and robustly with MIBI Nationalist and Centrality subscales (r values ranging from .45 to .62, p < .001). Similarly, Racial Protection demonstrates strong convergent associations with the Public Regard subscale (inversely, reflecting awareness of societal anti-Blackness) and the Racism Awareness dimensions of the SORS-A.
• Discriminant Validity: Discriminant validity has been demonstrated through negligible to low non-significant correlations with unrelated generalized psychological constructs, such as domain-general academic self-efficacy (when unlinked to racial factors) and social desirability scales (e.g., Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale). The five subscales demonstrate adequate independence from one another; for instance, the Racial Stereotyping subscale shares minimal variance with the Old School Basics subscale (r < .20), confirming that endorsing traditional community values is structurally distinct from internalizing negative societal tropes.
• Criterion-Related and Predictive Validity: In academic achievement studies among Black university students, Laurent (2016) demonstrated that specific socialization profiles measured by the CARES differentially predict academic persistence, psychological well-being, and perceived academic climate. Specifically, high levels of Cultural Insights buffered against the negative psychological consequences of campus microaggressions, predicting higher cumulative grade point averages (GPAs) and institutional commitment, whereas unbuffered exposure to Racial Stereotyping significantly predicted elevated racial imposter feelings and academic alienation.

8. Reliability

The internal consistency of the CARES subscales has been documented across empirical studies of African American college students and urban adolescents. In a comprehensive psychometric investigation of Black college students conducted by Laurent (2016), Cronbach’s alpha internal consistency coefficients for the 35 items clustered across the five subscales were reported as follows:

• Cultural Insights: α = .78 (demonstrating solid internal consistency for culturally affirming content).
• Racial Protection: α = .75 (demonstrating acceptable to high reliability for systemic caution items).
• Bicultural Coping: α = .60 (reflecting moderate reliability, common in complex multidimensional coping scales).
• Old School Basics: α = .56 (reflecting modest reliability due to broad thematic dispersion across proverbs, family structure, and spirituality).
• Racial Stereotyping: α = .48 (indicating low internal consistency, reflecting the heterogeneous nature of items measuring disparate stereotypes across gender, colorism, and nationality).

Psychometricians note that the lower internal consistency values observed for Racial Stereotyping (α = .48) and Old School Basics (α = .56) are structurally typical for scales measuring diverse, multidimensional behavioral phenomena rather than a singular homogeneous trait. In the case of Racial Stereotyping, items tap widely divergent stereotypical domains—ranging from intraracial colorism (e.g., Item 11) and athletic pigeonholing (Item 14) to gendered tropes (Items 15 and 35) and xenophobic tensions (Item 5). Because an individual may receive heavy messaging regarding colorism without ever receiving messages regarding athletic stereotypes, inter-item correlation matrices exhibit broad dispersion, lowering tau-equivalent alpha values while retaining high contextual and clinical validity. Test-retest reliability across four- to six-week latency intervals has yielded stable intraclass correlation coefficients ranging from .70 to .82 for the Cultural Insights and Racial Protection subscales, confirming longitudinal instrument stability in developmental cohorts.

9. Factor Analysis

During the structural validation of the CARES, Bentley-Edwards and Stevenson (2013) conducted systematic factor analytic evaluations to verify the dimensionality of the instrument. Initial evaluations utilized Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) using principal axis factoring with oblique (Promax) rotation, accounting for the natural theoretical intercorrelations among distinct dimensions of racialized communication.

The EFA scree plot evaluation alongside parallel analysis identified an optimal five-factor solution accounting for substantial total variance. Factor loadings across the 35 verified items supported the theoretical subscale distribution:

• Factor 1 (Cultural Insights): Strong factor loadings (λ ranging from .48 to .76) for items prioritizing Black history, African heritage, racial pride, and institutional accountability (e.g., Items 1, 2, 3, 21, 24, 29).
• Factor 2 (Racial Protection): Substantial loadings (λ ranging from .42 to .71) for statements emphasizing the pervasive nature of institutional racism, vigilance, systemic disparities, and the realities of discrimination (e.g., Items 6, 10, 23, 25, 30, 33).
• Factor 3 (Racial Stereotyping): Loadings (λ ranging from .35 to .58) representing intrusive negative racial representations, colorist hierarchies, and intragroup biases (e.g., Items 4, 5, 7, 11, 14, 15, 18, 32, 35).
• Factor 4 (Bicultural Coping): Salient loadings (λ ranging from .40 to .66) on behavioral and emotional adaptations needed to operate within predominantly White institutional contexts (e.g., Items 8, 12, 19, 22, 26, 27, 31).
• Factor 5 (Old School Basics): Distinct factor clustering (λ ranging from .38 to .64) for items rooted in traditional communal maxims, spiritual armor, extended kinship loyalty, and moral foundations (e.g., Items 9, 13, 16, 17, 20, 28, 34).

Subsequent Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) performed on independent collegiate samples (Laurent, 2016) demonstrated adequate structural fit for the oblique five-factor model over unidimensional and orthogonal alternative models. Fit indices for the five-factor structural formulation yielded acceptable model parameterization: χ²/df ≤ 2.14, Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = .91, Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) = .89, and Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = .052 (90% CI [.046, .058]), confirming that the CARES accurately captures five distinct empirical domains of socialization.

10. Instrument / Measurement Tool

• Test Type: Multidimensional self-report psychological inventory; racial and ethnic socialization questionnaire.
• Target Population: African American / Black adolescents (ages 12–18) and emerging adults / college students (ages 18–25+). Adaptable for broader adult populations examining retrospective or current socialization.
• Number of Items: 35 items.
• Subscales (5 Dimensions):
  • Racial Protection
  • Cultural Insights
  • Racial Stereotyping
  • Bicultural Coping
  • Old School Basics
• Primary Response Metric (Frequency): 3-point categorical rating scale:
  • Never (Scored as 1)
  • A Few Times (Scored as 2)
  • Lots of Times (Scored as 3)
• Secondary Tracking Metric (Socialization Source): For each endorsed statement, respondents identify the specific agent transmitting the message across nine categorical classifications:
  • Mother/Guardian
  • Father/Guardian
  • Grandparent
  • Sibling
  • Teacher/Professor
  • Other Adult
  • Friend/Peer
  • Media (TV, Movies, Internet, Books)
  • No one told me
• Scoring and Computational Rules:
  • Subscale scores are derived by calculating the mean or the sum of items corresponding to each respective dimension. Mean scoring (ranging from 1.00 to 3.00) is standard, preserving the interpretability of frequency across subscales.
  • Higher subscale scores reflect greater frequency of exposure to that specific qualitative domain of socialization.
  • Source profiles can be analyzed categorically to determine primary socialization agents (e.g., kinship-dominant vs. media-dominant socialization profiles).

11. Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Cultural and Racial Experiences of Socialization Scale (CARES) was formulated and submitted for psychometric validation in 2013 by Dr. Keisha L. Bentley-Edwards and Dr. Howard C. Stevenson. The instrument builds upon the foundational psychometric work of the Scale of Racial Socialization for African American Adolescents (SORS-A), developed by Stevenson in 1994.

The CARES is an open-access instrument for academic, non-commercial research and pedagogical endeavors. The complete instrument, scoring parameters, and structural dimensions are published in academic dissertations (e.g., Laurent, 2016) and scholarly repositories associated with Western Michigan University and the University of Pennsylvania. No licensing fees or royalty payments are required for standard educational and non-profit empirical investigations. However, clinical testing platforms, commercial publishers, or funded organizational assessment providers wishing to incorporate the CARES into proprietary assessment systems or electronic diagnostic batteries must obtain formal permission from the primary copyright holders and authors (Dr. Keisha L. Bentley-Edwards and Dr. Howard C. Stevenson).

12. References

• Bentley-Edwards, K. L., & Stevenson, H. C. (2013). Evolving with the times: Recasting racial/ethnic socialization measurement to account for multidimensional processes. Manuscript submitted for publication.
• Boykin, A. W., & Toms, F. D. (1985). Black child socialization: A conceptual framework. In H. P. McAdoo & J. L. McAdoo (Eds.), Black children: Social, educational, and parental environments (pp. 33–51). SAGE Publications.
• Laurent, V. R. (2016). The influence of racial socialization on the academic achievement of Black college students (Doctoral dissertation, Western Michigan University). Dissertations. Paper 1609. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations/1609
• Sellers, R. M., Rowley, S. A., Chavous, T. M., Shelton, J. N., & Smith, M. A. (1998). Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity: A preliminary investigation of reliability and construct validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(1), 18–39. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.75.1.18
• Spencer, M. B., Dupree, D., & Hartmann, T. (1997). A phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST) approach: A study of White and Black adolescents’ emotional development. Development and Psychopathology, 9(4), 817–833. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954579497001454
• Stevenson, H. C. (1994). Validation of the Scale of Racial Socialization for African American Adolescents: Steps toward multidimensionality. Journal of Black Psychology, 20(4), 445–468. https://doi.org/10.1177/00957984940204005
• Stevenson, H. C. (2014). Promoting racial literacy in schools: Differences that make a difference. Teachers College Press.
• Stevenson, H. C., & Arrington, E. G. (2009). Racial/ethnic socialization mediation of the impact of race-related stress on depression and hostility among Black adolescents. Journal of Black Psychology, 35(1), 125–148. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798408323384

13. Items of the Scale