Multigroup Measure of Ethnic Identity (Phinney) - Subject Baseline

This measure appears in the following time-points: Baseline.

Related Construct

Acculturation

Description of Measure

Sections of the Multigroup Measure of Ethnic Identity are used to determine an individual's overall sense of ethnic identity (Phinney, 1992). Items from the measure assess feelings of Affirmation & Belonging (e.g., "I am happy that I am a member of the group I belong to"), and Identity Achievement (e.g., "I have spent time trying to find out more about my ethnic group, such as its history, traditions, and customs"). For this scale, participants respond to 12 items using a 4-point Likert scale ranging from "Strongly Disgree" to "Strongly Agree," with higher scores indicating greater ethnic identity.

Confirmatory factor analysis of a two-factor model was fit to the baseline data. Full sample (n: 1351*; chi-square(52): 598.04; CFI: .915; TLI: .892; RMSEA: .088; SRMR: .055; AFF/BLNG alpha: .87; ETH ACHV alpha: .75). Results broken down by ethnic group are as follows: Mexican Americans (n: 334; chi-square(52): 222.26; CFI: .905; TLI: .879; RMSEA: .099; SRMR: .072; AFF/BLNG alpha: .88; ETH ACHV alpha: .77). Hispanics (n: 452; chi-square(52): 249.21; CFI: .917; TLI: .894; RMSEA: .092; SRMR: .063; AFF/BLNG alpha: .89; ETH ACHV alpha: .75). African Americans (n: 558; chi-square(52): 202.14; CFI: .931; TLI: .912; RMSEA: .072; SRMR: .047; AFF/BLNG alpha: .86; ETH ACHV alpha: .68). Whites (n: 274; chi-square(52): 198.74; CFI: .869; TLI: .834; RMSEA: .101; SRMR: .078; AFF/BLNG alpha: .84; ETH ACHV alpha: .75).

Three scores are calculated:

Affirmation & Belonging [s0ethaff]; the mean of 7 items in this subscale. Data must be contained in four of the seven items in order to receive a computed mean.
Identity Achievement [s0ethach]; the mean of 5 items in this subscale. Data in three of the five items is required.
Ethnic Identity-overall [s0ethid]; the mean of the 12 items in the full scale. Data in nine of the 12 items is required.

The following individual items are also available:

Subject's biological father's ethnicity [S0Phin22]
Subject's biological father's ethnicity (specify) [S0Phin23]
Subject's biological mother's ethnicity [S0Phin24]
Subject's biological mother's ethnicity (specify) [S0Phin25]

Note: The number of subjects in the Total group does not coincide necessarily with the sum of all subjects from the ethnic groups, since Mexican American and Hispanics are not mutually exclusive. In addition, other ethnic groups (e.g., Asians, Pacific Islanders, etc.) are included in the Total sample, but no analyses by group was conducted since the sample sizes were small.

Note: AFF/BLNG = Affirmation and Belonging; ETH ACHV = Ethnic Achievement.

References

Phinney, J. S. (1992). The multiple ethnic identity measure. Journal of Adolescent Research, 7(2), 156-176.