Measurement of Acculturation in a Community Population of Mexican Americans

A 26-item acculturation measure was administered to a probability sample of 1245 adult Mexican Americans residing in Los Angeles. This measure demonstrated high internal reliability for the total sample and for specific sex, educational, and language groups. Construct validity was supported by showing acculturation scores predicted length of exposure to U.S. culture. Data suggested that, among first generation Mexican Americans, those who were younger and male acculturated more rapidly than those who were older and female. This sex difference, but not the age difference, could be explained by educational and employment experiences. Among later generation Mexican Americans, those who were younger again had higher acculturation levels, possibly due to age differences in education and employment, or to historical factors differentially effecting age cohorts.

[1]  J. Szapocznik,et al.  Cuban value structure: treatment implications. , 1978, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[2]  W. Eaton,et al.  The Epidemiologic Catchment Area Program of the National Institute of Mental Health. , 1981, Public health reports.

[3]  R. Macías.  U.S. Hispanics in 2000 A.D.--Projecting the Number. , 1977 .

[4]  R. Mendoza.  5 – ACCULTURATION AND SOCIOCULTURAL VARIABILITY , 1984 .

[5]  G. T. Montgomery,et al.  Validation of a Measure of Acculturation for Mexican Americans , 1984 .

[6]  G. Powell.  The Psychosocial development of minority group children , 1983 .

[7]  J. Szapocznik,et al.  Bicultural involvement and adjustment in Hispanic-American youths , 1980 .

[8]  Amado M. Padilla,et al.  Acculturation: Theory, Models, And Some New Findings , 1983 .

[9]  D. Blazer,et al.  The NIMH Epidemiologic Catchment Area program. Historical context, major objectives, and study population characteristics. , 1984, Archives of general psychiatry.

[10]  I. Cuéllar,et al.  An Acculturation Scale for Mexican American Normal and Clinical Populations. , 1980 .

[11]  A. Padilla,et al.  Empirical and construct validation of a measure of acculturation for Mexican Americans. , 1978 .

[12]  R. Deyo,et al.  A simple language-based acculturation scale for Mexican Americans: validation and application to health care research. , 1985, American journal of public health.

[13]  M. Ramirez,et al.  6 – ASSESSING AND UNDERSTANDING BICULTURALISM-MULTICULTURALISM IN MEXICAN-AMERICAN ADULTS , 1984 .

[14]  Joe L. Martinez,et al.  Measure of Acculturation for Chicano Adolescents , 1978 .