Empirical and Construct Validation of a Measure of Acculturation for Mexican Americans

Abstract

An acculturation inventory consisting of sociocultural and semantic differential items was administered to adult men and women: 26 Anglo Americans, 16 first generation Mexican Americans, and 26 third generation Mexican Americans in three Southern California communities. The results indicated that acculturation scores derived from the inventory correlated highly with ethnic group membership (.83 ≤ r ≤ .85; p < .01). Furthermore, hypotheses pertaining to directional differences in acculturation scores among group means were confirmed: Anglo Americans scored significantly higher (p < .01) than third generation Mexican Americans, who, in turn, scored significantly higher (p < .05) than first generation Mexican Americans. Advantages and limitations of the inventory are discussed, as well as theoretical implications concerning the construct of acculturation and its relationship to sociocultural characteristics.