The development and validation of the Whitlow Measure of Afrocentric Relationship Attitudes

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate the Whitlow-Measure of Afrocentric Relationship Attitudes (MARA). There is no known relationship assessment that uses an Afrocentric approach in attempting to understand the dynamics of the Black relationship and thus, this scale is a vital contribution to the field of counseling psychology. 60 items were initially developed, relying on African psychology perspectives developed by Kambon (1998) and Asante (1981, 1987). There were 15 items developed for each hypothesized factor, derived from Asante's (1981) model of Black heterosexual relationships. Participant pool was 312 adult African Americans. Confirmatory and Exploratory Factor Analyses were performed and a 28-item, 3 factor scale resulted from the latter analysis. Scale factors include: (a) F1= African American Community Focus (AACF, alpha= .94), (b) Family Advancement and Relationship Unity (FARU, alpha= .89), and (c) Reliance on a Higher Power (RHP, alpha= .91). The Whitlow-MARA has excellent internal consistency reliability, with an alpha of .93. The Whitlow-MARA has very good construct validity, correlating significantly with the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (r=.19, p< .01) (Schumm, W.R., et al., 1986) and the Africentrism Scale: A Self Report Measure (r= .41, p< .001) (Grills & Longshore, 1996). This scale could be utilized in the areas of research, practice, and social activism.