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Validity of Temporal Measures as Proxies for Measuring Acculturation in Asian Indian Survey Respondents

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Abstract

There are few validated acculturation measures for Asian Indians in the U.S. We used the 2004 California Asian Indian Tobacco Survey to examine the relationship between temporal measures and eleven self-reported measures of acculturation. These items were combined to form an acculturation scale. We performed psychometric analysis of scale properties. Greater duration of residence in the U.S., greater percentage of lifetime in the U.S., and younger age at immigration were associated with more acculturated responses to the items for Asian Indians. Item-scale correlations for the 11-item acculturation scale ranged from 0.28–0.55 and internal consistency reliability was 0.73. Some support was found for a two-factor solution; one factor corresponding to cultural activities (α = 0.70) and the other to social behaviors (α = 0.59). Temporal measures only partially capture the full dimensions of acculturation. Our scale captured several domains and possibly two dimensions of acculturation.

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Acknowledgments

NB was supported by the National Research Service Award (T32 PE19001), and the American Heart Association—Pharmaceutical Roundtable Spina Outcomes Center (0875133N), Fellowships at the University of California, Los Angeles. RDH was supported in part by grants from the NIA (P30-AG021684) and the NIMHD (2P20MD000182). WJM was supported by the NHLBI—1P50HL105188-6094.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research, Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, 911 Broxton Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1769, USA

    Nazleen Bharmal

  2. Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research, Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Ron D. Hays

  3. Department of Health Policy and Management, UCLA Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    William J. McCarthy

  4. Department of Psychology, UCLA Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    William J. McCarthy

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  1. Nazleen Bharmal
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  2. Ron D. Hays
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  3. William J. McCarthy
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Correspondence to Nazleen Bharmal.

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Bharmal, N., Hays, R.D. & McCarthy, W.J. Validity of Temporal Measures as Proxies for Measuring Acculturation in Asian Indian Survey Respondents. J Immigrant Minority Health 16, 889–897 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-013-9837-1

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