title: Effects of language of assessment on the measurement of acculturation: measurement equivalence and cultural frame switching.
abstract: The present study used a randomized design, with fully bilingual Hispanic participants from the Miami area, to investigate 2 sets of research questions. First, we sought to ascertain the extent to which measures of acculturation (Hispanic and U.S. practices, values, and identifications) satisfied criteria for linguistic measurement equivalence. Second, we sought to examine whether cultural frame switching would emerge--that is, whether latent acculturation mean scores for U.S. acculturation would be higher among participants randomized to complete measures in English and whether latent acculturation mean scores for Hispanic acculturation would be higher among participants randomized to complete measures in Spanish. A sample of 722 Hispanic students from a Hispanic-serving university participated in the study. Participants were first asked to complete translation tasks to verify that they were fully bilingual. Based on ratings from 2 independent coders, 574 participants (79.5% of the sample) qualified as fully bilingual and were randomized to complete the acculturation measures in either English or Spanish. Theoretically relevant criterion measures--self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and personal identity--were also administered in the randomized language. Measurement equivalence analyses indicated that all of the acculturation measures--Hispanic and U.S. practices, values, and identifications-met criteria for configural, weak/metric, strong/scalar, and convergent validity equivalence. These findings indicate that data generated using acculturation measures can, at least under some conditions, be combined or compared across languages of administration. Few latent mean differences emerged. These results are discussed in terms of the measurement of acculturation in linguistically diverse populations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Sciences.
authors.forename: Seth J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Schwartz
authors.affiliation: Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats.
authors.forename: Verónica
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3352-9731
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Benet-Martínez
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Arizona State University.
authors.forename: George P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Knight
authors.affiliation: Institute for Prevention Research, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California.
authors.forename: Jennifer B
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-9064-6603
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Unger
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Smith College.
authors.forename: Byron L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Zamboanga
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Barry University.
authors.forename: Sabrina E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Des Rosiers
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Florida International University.
authors.forename: Dionne P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Stephens
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Sciences.
authors.forename: Shi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Sciences.
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Szapocznik
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D005431:Florida; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D011594:Psychometrics; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014177:Translations