TY - JOUR
T1 - Race and sexual orientation
T2 - An intersectional analysis and confirmatory factor analysis of the perceptions of police scale
AU - Taylor, Terrill O.
AU - Wilcox, Melanie M.
AU - Monceaux, Christopher P.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 American Psychological Association.
PY - 2020/9
Y1 - 2020/9
N2 - Research suggests that, owing to bias and discrimination in policing, members of historically marginalized groups-such as Black/African Americans and sexual minority people-report more negative perceptions of police than individuals from more privileged groups. However, research has yet to explore whether racial minority and sexual minority statuses contribute additively or interactively to perceptions of police. To this end, we compared perceptions of police across racial (Black and White) and sexual orientation (sexual minority and heterosexual) groups. The sample was composed of 86 Black heterosexual individuals, 127 Black sexual minority individuals, 129 White heterosexual individuals, and 58 White sexual minority individuals. Before conducting these comparisons, multigroup confirmatory factor analyses (MG-CFAs) were performed to determine whether the measure of perceptions of police demonstrated evidence of measurement invariance across racial and sexual orientation groups. Results of the MG-CFAs suggested that the Perceptions of Police Scale demonstrated adequate fit and that configural and metric invariance was obtained across racial and sexual orientation groups. However, only partial scalar invariance was obtained across racial groups. Analysis of covariance results indicated that there were significant main effects of racial minority status and sexual minority status that were qualified by a Race = Sexual Orientation interaction. Specifically, White heterosexual participants reported significantly more favorable perceptions of the police than the other three groups, who did not differ significantly from each other. Implications for future research and practice are discussed, such as the need to examine psychological effects of negative perceptions of police within marginalized communities.
AB - Research suggests that, owing to bias and discrimination in policing, members of historically marginalized groups-such as Black/African Americans and sexual minority people-report more negative perceptions of police than individuals from more privileged groups. However, research has yet to explore whether racial minority and sexual minority statuses contribute additively or interactively to perceptions of police. To this end, we compared perceptions of police across racial (Black and White) and sexual orientation (sexual minority and heterosexual) groups. The sample was composed of 86 Black heterosexual individuals, 127 Black sexual minority individuals, 129 White heterosexual individuals, and 58 White sexual minority individuals. Before conducting these comparisons, multigroup confirmatory factor analyses (MG-CFAs) were performed to determine whether the measure of perceptions of police demonstrated evidence of measurement invariance across racial and sexual orientation groups. Results of the MG-CFAs suggested that the Perceptions of Police Scale demonstrated adequate fit and that configural and metric invariance was obtained across racial and sexual orientation groups. However, only partial scalar invariance was obtained across racial groups. Analysis of covariance results indicated that there were significant main effects of racial minority status and sexual minority status that were qualified by a Race = Sexual Orientation interaction. Specifically, White heterosexual participants reported significantly more favorable perceptions of the police than the other three groups, who did not differ significantly from each other. Implications for future research and practice are discussed, such as the need to examine psychological effects of negative perceptions of police within marginalized communities.
KW - Intersectionality
KW - LGB
KW - Perceptions of police
KW - Race
KW - Sexual orientation
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U2 - 10.1037/sgd0000392
DO - 10.1037/sgd0000392
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85087091321
SN - 2329-0382
VL - 7
SP - 253
EP - 264
JO - Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity
JF - Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity
IS - 3
ER -