Racial Identity among African Americans and Black West Indian Americans

Differences in racial identity may be 1 explanation for differences in mental health and coping between West Indian Americans and African Americans and may have implications for culturally competent psychological practice with West Indians. This article examined differences in racial identity attitudes between African Americans and West Indian Americans using both group means analysis and strength of endorsement profiles. African Americans were significantly more likely to endorse encounter and immersion status attitudes, controlling for site, gender, age, and education. West Indians were twice as likely as African Americans to endorse high internalization profiles and were 8 times as likely to endorse high pre-encounter/internalization blended profiles. Subsequent analyses suggested that although ethnic differences in high internalization profiles may be explained by differences between the 2 samples in age, collection site, and education, differences in pre-encounter/internalization profiles are likely the result of ethnicity alone. Clinical implications are discussed.