Amine both between-group and within-group variation to explore the complexity of politicized group identities among survey respondents identifying as African American/Black, Asian American, Hispanic/ Latino, and Non-Hispanic White. More specifically, given that we utilize a unique dataset that allows for direct comparisons of group consciousness and linked fate across groups, we assess whether African Americans do in fact have higher levels of politicized group identity than other racial and ethnic SC144 site groups through both descriptive statistics and comparison of means tests. Furthermore, in our approach to gauging the effectiveness of the three measures of group consciousness to capture the dimensions of the concept, we run separate analyses for each racial and ethnic group available in our data: African Americans, Latinos, Whites, and Asian Americans. This will allow for an assessment of whether the measures of group consciousness commonlyAuthor Manuscript Author Manuscript Author Manuscript Author ManuscriptPolit Res Q. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2016 March 01.Sanchez and VargasPageemployed by scholars do a better job of accounting for the variance in this concept for one group OxaliplatinMedChemExpress Oxaliplatin relative to another. Although the primary focus of this analysis is not to assess factors that yield higher levels of group identity across groups, we stratify our sample by citizenship status, acculturation, and national origin to ensure that our analysis takes into consideration the important variation within these communities. Although scholars have found group identity to be meaningful across multiple racial and ethnic groups, there is evidence to suggest that group consciousness and linked fate may operate differently across racial and ethnic groups, as might be expected given the distinct histories and treatment of different racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. In regard to linked fate, it appears as though the contributing factors to this form of group identity may vary greatly by racial/ethnic group. Shared race along with a shared history of unequal treatment in the U.S. serves as the basis for linked fate among African Americans (Dawson 1994) and, to some extent, Asians (Masuoka 2006). However, factors associated with the immigration experience, such as nativity and language preference, appear to be the basis for Latino linked fate, with the less assimilated holding stronger perceptions of common fate with other Latinos (Masuoka and Sanchez 2010). Furthermore, despite discrimination serving as the foundation for linked fate among African Americans (see Dawson 1994), Masuoka and Sanchez (2010) find that discrimination is not a contributor to linked fate through their analysis utilizing the Latino National Survey. We therefore anticipate that the dimensions of group consciousness will perform better as measures for the concept when applied to African Americans relative to other groups. We approach this analysis from the standpoint that both forms of group identity will operate similarly for Latinos and African Americans however, with the concepts being a weaker fit for the Asian and White Americans. Although different than the experiences of African Americans, Latinos have experienced a long history of discriminatory practices including segregation, and exclusionary practices in the U.S. (Kamasaki, 1998; Lavariega Monforti Sanchez, 2010; Massey Denton, 1989) which we believe could lead to some similarity between these two groups in terms of mea.Amine both between-group and within-group variation to explore the complexity of politicized group identities among survey respondents identifying as African American/Black, Asian American, Hispanic/ Latino, and Non-Hispanic White. More specifically, given that we utilize a unique dataset that allows for direct comparisons of group consciousness and linked fate across groups, we assess whether African Americans do in fact have higher levels of politicized group identity than other racial and ethnic groups through both descriptive statistics and comparison of means tests. Furthermore, in our approach to gauging the effectiveness of the three measures of group consciousness to capture the dimensions of the concept, we run separate analyses for each racial and ethnic group available in our data: African Americans, Latinos, Whites, and Asian Americans. This will allow for an assessment of whether the measures of group consciousness commonlyAuthor Manuscript Author Manuscript Author Manuscript Author ManuscriptPolit Res Q. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2016 March 01.Sanchez and VargasPageemployed by scholars do a better job of accounting for the variance in this concept for one group relative to another. Although the primary focus of this analysis is not to assess factors that yield higher levels of group identity across groups, we stratify our sample by citizenship status, acculturation, and national origin to ensure that our analysis takes into consideration the important variation within these communities. Although scholars have found group identity to be meaningful across multiple racial and ethnic groups, there is evidence to suggest that group consciousness and linked fate may operate differently across racial and ethnic groups, as might be expected given the distinct histories and treatment of different racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. In regard to linked fate, it appears as though the contributing factors to this form of group identity may vary greatly by racial/ethnic group. Shared race along with a shared history of unequal treatment in the U.S. serves as the basis for linked fate among African Americans (Dawson 1994) and, to some extent, Asians (Masuoka 2006). However, factors associated with the immigration experience, such as nativity and language preference, appear to be the basis for Latino linked fate, with the less assimilated holding stronger perceptions of common fate with other Latinos (Masuoka and Sanchez 2010). Furthermore, despite discrimination serving as the foundation for linked fate among African Americans (see Dawson 1994), Masuoka and Sanchez (2010) find that discrimination is not a contributor to linked fate through their analysis utilizing the Latino National Survey. We therefore anticipate that the dimensions of group consciousness will perform better as measures for the concept when applied to African Americans relative to other groups. We approach this analysis from the standpoint that both forms of group identity will operate similarly for Latinos and African Americans however, with the concepts being a weaker fit for the Asian and White Americans. Although different than the experiences of African Americans, Latinos have experienced a long history of discriminatory practices including segregation, and exclusionary practices in the U.S. (Kamasaki, 1998; Lavariega Monforti Sanchez, 2010; Massey Denton, 1989) which we believe could lead to some similarity between these two groups in terms of mea.