Most instruments designed to measure acculturation have relied on specific
cultural behaviors and preferences as primary indicators of acculturation. In
contrast, feelings of belonging and emotional attachment to cultural communities
have not been widely used. The Psychological Acculturation Scale (PAS) was
developed to assess acculturation from a phenomenological perspective, with
items pertaining to the individual's sense of psychological attachment to and
belonging within the Anglo-American and Latino/Hispanic cultures. Responses from
samples of bilingual individuals and Puerto Rican adolescents and adults are
used to establish a high degree of measurement equivalence across the Spanish
and English versions of the scale along with high levels of internal consistency
and construct validity. The usefulness of the PAS and the importance of studying
acculturation from a phenomenological perspective are discussed. Psychological
acculturation refers to changes in individuals' psychocultural orientations that
develop through involvement and interaction within new cultural systems. Rather
than conceptualizing acculturation as a process in which people lose connection
to their original culture (Gordon, 1978), new research has emphasized the
individual's negotiation of two cultural entities (Berry, Poortinga, Segall, &
Dasen, 1992; Buriel, 1993). Responding to distinct sets of norms from the
culture of origin and the host culture, acculturating individuals emerge with
their own interpretation of appropriate values, customs, and practices as they
negotiate between cultural contexts (Berry, 1980). People vary greatly in their
abilities to function within new cultural environments (LaFromboise, Coleman, &
Gerton, 1993) and may seek different levels of attachment to and involvement in
a host culture or their culture(s) of origin (Padilla, 1980). To study
individuals' cultural orientations, measures of acculturation traditionally have
focused on individuals' behaviors and behavioral preferences and have relied
heavily on language use and other behaviors as indicators of acculturation
(Marin, Sabogal, VanOss Matin, Otero-Sabogal, & Perez-Stable, 1987; Szapocznik,
Kurtines, & Fernandez, 1980). For example, Szapocznik et al. (1980) described
acculturation as based in two primary dimensions: cultural behaviors and values.
Paralleling their conceptualization of acculturation, the Behavioral
Acculturation Scale (Szapocznik, Scopetta, Kurtines, & Aranalde, 1978) includes
items most closely related to cultural behaviors and preferences (e.g., What
language do you speak at home? and What language do you prefer to speak?).
Similarly, Cuellar, Harris, and Jasso (1980) measured acculturation with items
pertaining primarily to cultural behaviors and values (e.g., What language do
you prefer?). This measure also included several items concerning migration
history (e.g., Where were you raised?) and one item concerning ethnic
self-identification (i.e., How do you identify yourself?). These factors can be
important in interpreting individuals' acculturation experiences; however,
rather than assessing personal acculturation factors and sociodemographic
factors as separate concepts, Cuellar et al. (1980) combined these items within
the same measure. We feel that this approach may be problematic in two primary
ways. First, such modes of measurement blur distinctions between factual
histories of individuals (e.g., age of arrival on the U.S. mainland) and the
assessment of individuals' acculturative change. Second, measures heavily based
on cultural behaviors may not assess adequately individuals' acceptance and
understanding of the values from each culture (Betancourt & Lopez, 1993; Rogler,
1994) or grant sufficient attention to individuals' emotional attachments to
each culture (Estrada, 1993).
Alternatively, new instruments can be designed to measure acculturation as it
is psychologically experienced by the individual. Reviews of the acculturation
literature have identified cultural loyalty, solidarity, identification, and
comprehension as overlapping elements of psychological responses to cultural
exposure (Berry, 1980; Betancourt & Lopez, 1993; Szapocznik & Kurtines, 1980).
To assess these psychological components of acculturation, the 10-item
Psychological Acculturation Scale (PAS) was developed. Unlike traditional
measures, the PAS targets individuals' psychological negotiation of two cultural
entities (in this case, Anglo-American culture and Latino/Hispanic culture),
with particular attention to their sense of emotional attachment to and
understanding of each culture. This set of studies was designed to assess the
psychometric properties of the PAS. In particular, cross-language equivalence,
internal consistency, and convergent and discriminant validity were examined.
CROSS-LANGUAGE EQUIVALENCE Back translation and decentering are widely used
methods for determining cross-language equivalence of a scale (Brislin, 1986).
For example, to create a Spanish version of an English-language measure, one
person translates from English to Spanish, and a different person translates the
Spanish version back into English. Discrepancies in the translated versions are
resolved through decentering, a process of several iterations whereby the
measure is pulled away from the idiosyncrasies of the source language (i.e., the
original English-language version). We share the concerns of Bontempo (1993) and
Olmedo (1981) about the validity of this accepted procedure. Even when original
and back-translated versions are quite similar, measurement equivalence can
still not be assumed or guaranteed for the two language versions because
concepts and wordings for scale items originally were produced in only the
source language (Bontempo, 1993; Olmedo, 1981). As an alternative, we have
developed a dual-focus approach to creating bilingual measures, whereby the
conceptual content of each item is developed and then words are generated to
express that concept in each language (see Erkut, Alarc6n, Garcia Coil, Tropp, &
Vazquez, in press, for details of this procedure). In developing the PAS, our
goal has been to compose item wordings that express the relevant concepts with
equal clarity, affect, and level of usage in both languages. CONVERGENT AND
DISCRIMINANT VALIDITY Convergent and discriminant validity were assessed by
examining the predicted relationships between respondents' psychological
acculturation scores and traditional validation measures of acculturation (e.g.,
place of birth, percentage of lifetime living on the U.S. mainland) as well as
culture-specific behaviors and preferences that have been employed in other
acculturation scales.
