Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans-II (ARSMA-II) - Subject Baseline
This measure appears in the following time-points: Baseline.
Related Construct
Description of Measure
The Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans-II (ARSMA-II; Cuellar, Arnold, & Maldonado, 1995) was adapted for this study to measure the adolescent's cultural orientation toward Mexican and Anglo cultures. This instrument was only administered to adolescents who identified themselves as Mexican-American. The scale contains 48 items to which participants respond on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from "Not at all" to "Extremely often or almost always," with higher scores indicating greater cultural orientation. Six subscales are proposed for the ARSMA-II: Mexican Orientation - general (MOS; e.g., "I enjoy speaking Spanish."), Mexican Orientation - Affiliation (e.g., "My friends, while growing up, were of Mexican origin."), Mexican Orientation - Language (e.g., "I enjoy listening to Spanish language music."), Anglo Orientation - general (AOS; e.g., "I speak English."), Anglo Orientation - Affiliation (e.g., "My friends now are of Anglo origin."), and Anglo Orientation- Language (e.g., "I enjoy English language TV.").
A series of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were done on this scale for the sample of Mexican-American adolescents in this sample. These analyses led to the conclusion that subscales for Anglo Orientation - General and Mexican Orientation - General each fit the data (AOS-G: CFI = .95; TLI = .93; RMSEA = .069. MOS-G: CFI = .96; TLI = .95; RMSEA = .077. In addition a four factor model that splits these general orientations into language and affiliation scores also fits the data. These scores fit the baseline data in a four factor CFA model, allowing for some logical correlations of measurement error terms. The fit indices are: CFI = .92; TLI = .90; SRMR = .082; RMSEA = .069 for the four factor model. The measure is administered only to individuals who self-report that they are Mexican-American (a 'yes' response to S0Mexam). This means that there are six subscales derived from the ARSMA-II:
- Mexican Orientation - General [s0mos]; the mean of 12 items. Data must be contained in nine of the 12 items in order to compute a valid mean.
- Anglo Orientation - General [s0aos]; the mean of 11 items; data in eight of the 11 items is required.
- Mexican Orientation - Affiliation [s0mexaff]; the mean of 3 items; data in two of the three items is required.
- Mexican Orientation - Language [s0spalng]; the mean of 9 items; data in five of the nine items is required.
- Anglo Orientation - Affiliation [s0angaff]; the mean of 3 items; data in two of the three items is required.
- Anglo Orientation - Language [s0englng]; the mean of 8 items; data in five of the eight items is required.
The following individual item is also available for this measure:
- Do you consider yourself to be Mexican-American [S0MEXAM]
A number of the original ARSMA-II items did not load onto coherent factors for the scale, and were thus dropped from the interview at later waves.
Data Issues
- This measure was only administered to adolescents who identified themselves as Mexican American (established in variable S0MEXAM).
- In June, 2004, it was decided that the marginality items will be dropped from interviews from this point forward because the working group agreed that these items were not measuring the concept well. Therefore, from June, 2004 forward, items s0armsa30-47 will be dropped.
References
- Cuellar, I., Arnold, B., Maldonado, R. (1995). Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans-II: A revision of the original ARSMA scale. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Science, 17(3), 275-304.