Assessment of Perceived Occupational Opportunity for Black Americans

Abstract

This article reports the development of two new instruments for assessing perceived occupational opportunity for Black Americans: the Perceived Occupational Opportunity Scale—Form B and the Perceived Occupational Discrimination Scale-Form B. Study 1 reports the development of the two measures and the reliability and validity data collected from 231 Black undergraduate students at a midwestern university. Study 2 reports additional reliability and validity data collected from 105 Black and 72 White high school students in a southern metropolitan city. Results suggested adequate reliability and validity evidence for the two scales. Differences in responses to the measures among the three samples were interpreted in a theoretical framework. Practical and research implications of the two measures are discussed.