Online Racial Discrimination Scale: A Study of Measurement Invariance Across Racial–Ethnic and Gender Groups

Objectives: Reliable and valid tools assessing online racism exposures in youth of color are needed. The present study examined the validity, internal consistency, and measurement invariance of the modified individual and vicarious Online Racial Discrimination (ORD) subscales from the Online Victimization Scale (OVS; Tynes et al., 2010). Method: Using a nationally representative sample of Black and Latinx adolescents (N = 696), this study employed an exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) to (a) confirm the factor structure with the updated individual and vicarious ORD subscales, (b) test the measurement invariance across racial–ethnic and gender groups, and (c) investigate the construct validity. Results: Findings revealed that the two-factor model provided good fit of the data and good conceptual clarity consistent with our original framework. Additionally, the individual and vicarious ORD subscales met the criteria for scalar measurement invariance across racial–ethnic groups. These subscales also met criteria for metric invariance across gender groups, and this finding cautions users from comparing (adjusted-)means of intercepts across gender groups given that scalar measurement invariance was not supported. Conclusion: The ORD scale is a reliable and valid measure for assessing experiences of online racial discrimination in Black and Latinx adolescents. These findings provide further support for the ORD scale’s psychometric properties to help advance this line of research.