Comparing Cognitive Interviewing and Psychometric Methods to Evaluate a Racial/Ethnic Discrimination Scale

Proponents of survey evaluation have long advocated the integration of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, but this recommendation has rarely been practiced. The authors used both methods to evaluate the Everyday Discrimination scale (EDS), which measures frequency of various types of discrimination, in a multiethnic population. Cognitive testing included 30 participants of various race/ethnic backgrounds and identified items that were redundant, unclear, or inconsistent (e.g., cognitive challenges in quantifying acts of discrimination). Psychometric analysis included secondary data from two national studies, including 570 Asian Americans, 366 Latinos, and 2,884 African Americans, and identified redundant items as well as those exhibiting differential item functioning (DIF) by race/ethnicity. Overall, qualitative and quantitative techniques complemented one another, as cognitive interviewing findings provided context and explanation for quantitative results. Researchers should consider further how to integrate these methods into instrument pretesting as a way to minimize response bias for ethnic and racial respondents in population-based surveys.