This Article Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (3) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Kang, S.-M. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Measurement of Acculturation, Scale Formats, and Language Competence

Their Implications for Adjustment

California State University, Northridge, skang{at}csun.edu

This study was conducted to test whether the lack of independence between ethnic and mainstream cultural orientations is partially due to the adoption of a specific scale format. It was hypothesized that unique structural features commonly found in bidimensional acculturation instruments (paired questions that differ only in their cultural orientations and utilize the "frequency" format) cause strong inverse associations between the two cultural orientations. This study also explored the relative importance of language competence over the other domains of acculturation in the prediction of psychosocial adjustment (i.e., self-esteem, perceived stress, peer relationship, adjustment to college, family conflict). As predicted, results from a sample of 489 Asian Americans supported the hypothesis that the scale formats contribute to the lack of orthogonality. They also showed that language competence was a stronger predictor of adjustment than the other domains of acculturation, implying that language competence is a better indicator of acculturation among Asian Americans.

Key Words: acculturation • measurement • language • adjustment

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?