Scale of Racial Socialization for Adolescents – SORS-A

Our society is fair toward black people.

Grandparents help parents to make decisions.

Black children will feel good about being black in a school with mostly white children.

It is important for families to go to church or mosque where spiritual growth can happen.

Families should talk about black slavery with their children.

Relatives can help black parents raise their children.

Religion is an important part of a person's life.

Racism and discrimination are the hardest things a black child has to face.

Having large families can help many black families survive life struggles.

Families of black children should teach them to be proud to be black.

Children should be taught that all races are equal.

Children who have good times with their relatives become better people.

A belief in God can help a person deal with tough life struggles.

A mostly black school will help black children learn more than a mostly white school.

Spending good time with relatives is just as important for parents as it is for their children.

Black parents should teach their children about racism.

Black parents should talk about their roots to African culture to their children.

Relatives can teach children things that parents may not know.

Families who talk about racism to their children will lead them to doubt themselves.

Schools should be required to teach all children about black history.

Depending on religion and God can help a person make good life decisions.

Families who talk openly about religion or God are helping their children grow.

Teachers should make it so black children can see signs of black culture in the classroom.

Only people who are blood-related to you should be called your 'family.'

Getting a good education is still the best way for a black child to survive racism.

"Don't forget who your people are because you may need them someday."

When children are younger than 5, racism doesn't bother them.

Spiritual battles that people fight are more important than the physical battles.

Teaching children about black history will help them to survive a hostile world.

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and he will not turn away from it."

A black child has to work twice as hard in order to get ahead in this world.

Watching parents struggle to find work can make many black children wonder if it is worth it to try and succeed in the world.

Parents can teach children to be proud to be black without saying a word.

Black children at a mostly black school will feel better about themselves than those who go to a mostly white school.

Black parents need to teach their children how to live in two worlds: one black and one white.

Light-skin black persons often think they are better than darker skinned blacks.

Whites do not have more opportunities than blacks.

A black child or teenager will not be harassed simply because s/he is black.

More job opportunities would be open to African-Americans if people were not racist.

Black children should be taught early that God can protect them from racial hatred.

Whites do not think of black people as lazy or aggressive today like they used to believe 30 or more years ago.

Black parents should not teach their children to speak their mind because they could be attacked by others in society.

If black parents teach their children that blacks don't always have the same opportunities as whites, they may help them to survive racism and be successful.

Black children don't have to know about Africa in order to survive life in America.

My family taught me very little about racism in America.