The range and value of diversity indices are constrained by the number of racial/ethnic groups included, complicating comparisons across studies¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2023 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Simpson's D maximum values differ by group count (0.5 for two groups, 0.75 for four, 0.8 for five), and decomposing one group into several changes the index value (0.50 to .58). → Chan 2023

Evidence¶

Chan 2023¶

Chan, M.-k., & Benner, A. D. (2023). A Consideration of Racial/Ethnic Diversity Conceptualization and Measurement: Clarifying Ambiguities and Advancing Scholarship. Educational Psychologist (accepted manuscript). https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6451-2417

q2 · i? · review · r2

Analytical illustration using Simpson's D: "the maximum value of the index with two groups is 0.5; for four groups, it is 0.75; for five groups, it is 0.8." A 50/50 Asian-White context scoring 0.50 becomes .58 when the Asian group is decomposed into East, Southeast, and South Asian subgroups.

"the maximum value of the index with two groups is 0.5; for four groups, it is 0.75; for five groups, it is 0.8. Thus, the range of the diversity index is constrained by the number of groups included in a given study."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• In school racial/ethnic diversity research, mathematical diversity indices operationalizing dual-concept diversity are the dominant measure, with Simpson's D the most widely applied, and most studies assess static diversity at a single timepoint — related
• Simpson's D index is insensitive to small groups, so contexts with vastly different racial/ethnic compositions can receive nearly equivalent index values — related