Abstract

Issues of validity and reliability of measures used to develop a new ethnic identity construct are examined.  Data gathered from a Native American Indian tribe (N = 312) during a Community Safety Survey conducted in 2001 in which survey respondents were asked about their ethnic identities were compared with a female prisoner population (N = 255) incarcerated in the Ohio Reformatory for Women in 1998, in which survey respondents were asked the same questions.  Using paired-samples t-tests and principal component analysis, support was found to use these measures in an ethnic identity construct.  Providing an ethnic identity construct has the potential to aid understanding of the etiology of deviance, as well as aid other areas of social science.