Understanding colourism in the UK: development and assessment of the everyday colourism scale
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This paper details the development and psychometric validation of the Everyday Colourism Scale (ECS), a measure designed to capture perceived skin shade prejudice from the ingroup (ethnic peers) and the outgroup (White people). The ECS was adapted from the Everyday Discrimination Scale using existing research, expert reviews, and acceptability interviews. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and reliability and validity analyses were conducted based on responses from 540 people of colour living in the UK. Predictive validity was tested based on data from an additional 201 participants. Results supported a 2-factor model, with good internal and test–retest reliability, and construct validity. Colourism from White people was associated with more frequent experiences of racism, higher internalized colourism, and greater anxiety. Colourism from participants’ ethnic peers was associated with lower self-esteem and perceived social support. Findings suggest the ECS is a promising new tool for assessing perceived colourism among a multi-ethnic UK sample.
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In a cross-sectional, mixed ethnicity study on colourism, Black people reported greater experiences of colourism compared with people from other minoritised ethnic groups.
“For example, in a cross-sectional, mixed ethnicity study on colourism, Craddock et al. (2023) found that compared with people from other minoritised ethnic groups, Black people reported greater experiences of colourism.”
From Skin shade and relationships: how colourism pits Black and mixed Black-White women against each other (2024) · cites this paper as Craddock et al., 2023
In that study, colourism was associated with negative wellbeing outcomes even when racism was included in the model, highlighting the unique role of colourism.
“In turn, colourism was associated with negative wellbeing outcomes even when racism was included in the model, thus highlighting the unique role of colourism.”
From Skin shade and relationships: how colourism pits Black and mixed Black-White women against each other (2024) · cites this paper as Craddock et al., 2023
In that study, those with darker skin shades reported greater experiences of colourism.
“Further, those with darker skin shades reported greater experiences of colourism.”
From Skin shade and relationships: how colourism pits Black and mixed Black-White women against each other (2024) · cites this paper as Craddock et al., 2023
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Craddock, N., Phoenix, A., White, P., Gentili, C., Diedrichs, P. C., & Barlow, F.
- Affiliations
- University of the West of England (GB)
- King's College London (GB)
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Craddock, Nadia
- Venue
- Ethnic and Racial Studies
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2022-12-09
- Volume
- 46
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 2242-2277
- ISSN
- 0141-9870 (ISSN-L)
- 1466-4356
- OpenAlex
- W4311140182
- Cited by
- 17
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3
- FWCI
- 4.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Ethnic and Racial Studies (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- UWE Research Repository (UWE Bristol) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- a small internal
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Keywords
- colorism, racism, anxiety, self-esteem, perceived social support, people of color, scale development, psychometric validation, Everyday Discrimination Scale, United Kingdom
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