Description

The Transracial Adoption Parenting Scale (TAPS-36) is a psychometric tool designed to assess the experiences, attitudes, and practices of parents who have adopted children of a different race or ethnicity than their own. The scale comprises 36 items that measure various aspects of parenting in the context of transracial adoption, including parental attitudes towards race, cultural socialization practices, and the perceived challenges and benefits of transracial adoption.

Analysis and Data Usage

The TAPS-36 scale is typically administered to adoptive parents and caregivers who have adopted transracially. The data obtained from this scale can be analyzed using various statistical methods, depending on the research objectives. Commonly, researchers may use:
Descriptive Statistics: To summarize the overall responses and provide an overview of the data, including mean scores, standard deviations, and response distributions for each item.
Factor Analysis: To examine the underlying structure of the scale, determining how items group together into factors or dimensions. This analysis can help validate the construct of the scale and identify key components that capture different aspects of transracial adoption parenting.
Reliability Analysis: To assess the internal consistency of the scale, ensuring that the items within each identified factor are measuring the same underlying concept. Cronbach’s alpha is often used for this purpose.
Correlational Analysis: To explore the relationships between TAPS-36 scores and other variables, such as parental satisfaction, child outcomes, or the level of racial and cultural socialization practices.
Comparative Analysis: To compare TAPS-36 scores across different groups, such as by race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or geographic location, to understand how these factors may influence transracial adoption parenting experiences.

Calibration

Calibration of the TAPS-36 involves ensuring that the scale is reliable and valid across different populations and contexts. This process includes:
Pilot Testing: Conducting a pilot study to test the scale with a small sample of transracial adoptive parents to refine the items and ensure clarity and relevance.
Validation Studies: Using larger, diverse samples to validate the scale, ensuring that it accurately measures the constructs it is intended to measure across various demographic groups.
Item Response Theory (IRT): Applying IRT to examine the properties of individual items, such as their difficulty and discrimination, to refine the scale further and ensure that it functions well across different levels of the underlying traits being measured.
Cross-Cultural Validation: Ensuring that the scale is applicable and meaningful across different cultural contexts, especially when used in multinational or multicultural studies.

References

When writing about or using the TAPS-36 in research, it is important to reference foundational studies and relevant literature that have contributed to its development and validation. Here are some key references:
McRoy, R. G., & Zurcher, L. A. (1983). “Transracial and inracial adoptees: The adolescent years.” Springer Science & Business Media.
Lee, R. M. (2003). “The transracial adoption paradox: History, research, and counseling implications of cultural socialization.” The Counseling Psychologist, 31(6), 711-744.
Vonk, M. E. (2001). “Cultural competence for transracial adoptive parents.” Social Work, 46(3), 246-255.
DeBerry, K. M., Scarr, S., & Weinberg, R. A. (1996). “Family racial socialization and ecological competence: Longitudinal assessments of African-American transracial adoptees.” Child Development, 67(5), 2375-2399.
Smith, S. L., & Juarez, L. (2016). “Adoptive parents’ attitudes toward race and their role in cultural socialization.” Adoption Quarterly, 19(1), 1-23.