title: Adaptation of an Acculturation Scale for African Refugee Women.
abstract: Newly-arrived African refugees are a vulnerable group of immigrants for whom no validated acculturation measures exist. A valid measurement tool is essential to understand how acculturative processes impact health and health disparities. We adapted the Bicultural Involvement Questionnaire (BIQ) to characterize its reliability among ethnic Somali women residing in Minnesota, and Somali, Somali Bantu, and Burundian women in Arizona. Surveys were administered to 164 adult women. Analyses were conducted along socio-demographic variables of ethnicity, geographic residence, age, and length of time in the United States through t tests and one-way analysis of variance. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the modified BIQ. Exploratory factor analyses yielded five subscales: "Speak Native Language", "Speak English Language", "Enjoy Native Activities", "Enjoy American Activities", and "Desired Ideal Culture". The subscales of the modified BIQ possessed Cronbach's α ranging from 0.68 to 0.92, suggestive that all subscales had acceptable to excellent internal consistency. The modified BIQ maintained its psychometric properties across geographic regions of resettled Central and East African refugees.
authors.affiliation: Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center, Arizona State University, 411 N Central Ave, Suite 720, MC 4320, Phoenix, AZ, 85004, USA. cejohn11@asu.edu.
authors.forename: Crista E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Johnson-Agbakwu
authors.affiliation: Office of Women's Health, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.|School of Dentistry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Priscilla
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Flynn
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences Research, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Gladys B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Asiedu
authors.affiliation: Morrison Institute for Public Policy, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hedberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences Research, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Carmen Radecki
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Breitkopf
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D012036:Refugees / Q000523:psychology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D012998:Somalia / Q000208:ethnology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Acculturation; African; Biculturalism; Refugees; Women