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Acculturation and ethnic identity measures for Latinos and Asian Americans: Analyses of methodology and psychometrics
Abstract
The primary purpose of the study was to examine the psychometric properties, through expert evaluation and the investigator's analyses, of select acculturation (including acculturative stress) and ethnic identity instruments designed for use with Latino and Asian American populations. These instruments were identified and selected on the basis of commonly-used measurement criteria and professionally recognized publication outlets and data bases. The constructs, measurement methodology, and instrument-development information in the two domains of acculturation and ethnic identity were described, reviewed, and evaluated, as these explain the adaptations of Latinos and Asian Americans to White American society and their attachments to their ethnic societies. Methodological questions related to the measurement of acculturation were raised and answered to evaluate its current state-of-the-art. Each of the 29 instruments was described in the text; their psychometric properties were presented in a table (Appendix A); and the effect sizes of significant results shown by instrument-development studies were tested. Two levels of expert raters quantitatively and qualitatively evaluated the psychometric properties of the acculturation (including acculturative stress) and ethnic identity instruments on an Instrument Evaluation Questionnaire developed for the study. The Instrument Evaluation Questionnaire showed high inter-rater reliability and acceptable internal consistency. On the basis of expert ratings, the instruments were ranked and the acceptability of reliability and validity evidence was noted. Qualitative themes were developed from the experts' stated rationales for their evaluations, with the themes providing clarification to the quantitative results. Additionally, effect sizes of group differences indicated by the instrument-development studies were shown to be moderate to high. In keeping with the utilitarian nature of the study, important correlations of acculturation (including acculturative stress) and ethnic identity instruments with immigrant sociocultural variables were summarized. These correlations were judged to be of moderate to high effect size. Finally, theoretical and measurement implications with respect to the findings for the instruments were explained. While the overall rankings of the instruments' psychometric properties indicated that some were more soundly constructed than others, the separate reliability and validity ratings showed that the majority of instruments were good to very good in establishing appropriate psychometric evidence.
Subject Area
Bilingual education|Multicultural education|Psychological tests
Recommended Citation
Maestas, Michael V, "Acculturation and ethnic identity measures for Latinos and Asian Americans: Analyses of methodology and psychometrics" (2000). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9977003.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9977003