ABSTRACT
Building on previous work, a schema-based approach to belief systems is used to model an African-American racial belief system. This belief system is used with socioeconomic status, exposure to black media, and religious guidance, as a predictor of individual African-American political participation. A LISREL measurement and causal model are used to estimate the theoretical model. As predicted, the various cognitive schemata of the racial-identity belief system are shown to predict political participation. Further, religious guidance is shown to be a stronger predictor of some forms of political participation than socioeconomic status. Overall, socioeconomic status and religious guidance are shown to be the strongest predictors of political participation. Using a national sample of African Americans, we found that those with a higher socioeconomic status and/ or with a higher degree of religious guidance in their lives were more likely to participate in the political process.
