Measuring perceived racism and psychosis in African-Caribbean patients in the United Kingdom: the modified perceived racism scale

The increased rate of psychosis and poorer service-related outcomes in UK African-Caribbeans may in part be related to racism; racism as an aetiological factor remains comparatively under-investigated. We wanted to develop a measure of perceived racism in UK African-Caribbean patients with psychosisMethodWe modified the Perceived Racism Scale (PRS) by substituting a mental-health-services' racism domain for the employment-racism domain and administered it to a sample of 150 individuals.

Results: 110 people completed the PRS with a total mean perceived racism score of 54.2 for the previous year and 71.3 for the lifetime.

The modified instrument had good internal consistency, and both a similar factor-analytic structure and sampling adequacy to the original instrument.

Conclusions: The modified PRS was acceptable to the sample, withstands statistical scrutiny and produced similar totals to those in previously-tested populations. Subjective measurement of perceived racism may improve understanding of psychosis in African-Caribbeans, improve engagement and, hopefully, outcome.

Author: Apu T Chakraborty, Kwame J McKenzie, Gerard Leavey and Michael B King
Credits/Source: Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health 2009, 5:10

Published on: 2009-05-20

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