Date of Award

8-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

International Family and Community Studies

Committee Chair/Advisor

Dr. Susan Limber

Committee Member

Dr. Ronald E. Hall

Committee Member

Dr. Bonnie Holaday

Committee Member

Dr. Natasha Sianko

Abstract

Colourism is a form of prejudice based on skin tone that occurs intraracially among communities of colour. Whereas light-skin tones are highly favoured, dark-skin tones are privileged in terms of perceived ethnic authenticity and legitimacy, thus, leading to assumptions about greater group level support and resources for dark-skinned persons. This study challenges these assumptions on the premise of ingroup colourism jeopardizing the relationship between Afro and Indo Trinidadians, and their racial-ethnic groups based on the tenets of Social Identity Theory and Social Identity Threat Theory. Social Identity Threat Theory proposes that the response to rejection from one’s ingroup depends on how highly or lowly the individual identifies with their ingroup. Therefore, as a proxy for determining how highly or lowly participants identified with their racial-ethnic group, this study used assimilation to a nationalistic identity to discern the extent to which participants disassociated from their racial-ethnic identity. Trinidadians were the population of interest for this study since colourism is significantly under-researched in the English-speaking Caribbean.

For the purpose of examining the relationship between ingroup colourism and racial esteem, as well as, the moderating role of assimilation to a nationalistic identity and other demographic variables, an analytical sample of 86 young adults attending the University of the Southern Caribbean filled out the Everyday Colourism Scale, the Assimilation subscale of the Cross Ethnic-Racial Identity Scale – Adult, and the Race-Specific Collective Self-Esteem Scale. This study conducted Independent Samples t-tests to assess for group differences in ingroup colourism, racial esteem, and assimilation to a nationalistic identity between genders and racial-ethnic groups. An Ordinary Least Squares Regression tested whether ingroup colourism explained variance in racial esteem. Moderation analyses were carried out to investigate whether assimilation to a nationalistic identity, gender, or racial-ethnic group moderated the relationship between ingroup colourism and racial esteem.

Group differences, based on racial-ethnic group, in racial esteem were found. Experiences of perceived ingroup colourism predicted Private Collective Self-Esteem and Public Collective Self-Esteem. Assimilation to a nationalistic identity moderated the relationship between ingroup colourism and Public Collective Self-Esteem. Implications of these results for the mental health field in Trinidad are discussed.

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