EXPLORING THE LINKS BETWEEN RACIAL IDENTITY ATTITUDES AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FEELINGS OF CLOSENESS IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN COLLEGE-STUDENTS

The relationship between racial identity attitudes and psychological c loseness to various African American groups was examined in 171 Africa n American college students at a predominantly White southeastern univ ersity. The data were collected using the Racial Identity Attitude Sca le (Helms & Parham, 1985), and a scale measuring Perceived Psychologic al Closeness to African Americans. The closeness scale is a 14-item in strument that was found to represent (in this sample) psychological cl oseness to 4 African American groups. Internalized racial identity att itudes indicated positive feelings toward various groups of African Am ericans. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that in ternalized racial identity attitudes were predictive of psychological closeness to African Americans, although this varied somewhat dependin g on the subgroup.