Psychological Acculturation Scale

Tropp, L. R., Erkut, S., Coll, C. G., Alarcón, O., & García, H. A. V. (1999). Psychological acculturation: Development of a new measure for Puerto Ricans on the U.S. mainland. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 59(2), 351-367.

Documented the psychometric properties of the Psychological Acculturation Scale (PAS) in three studies. The PAS was developed to assess acculturation from a phenomenological perspective, with items pertaining to the individual's sense of psychological attachment to and belonging within the Anglo American and Latino/Hispanic cultures. Participants were 36 self-identified bilingual Latinos (aged 13-58 yrs), 107 Puerto Ricans (aged 12-58 yrs), 247 Puerto Rican 13- and 14-yr-old adolescents, and 228 mothers of these adolescents (aged 27-57 yrs). Responses from these samples were used to establish a high degree of measurement equivalence across the Spanish and English versions of the scale along with high levels of internal consistency and construct validity. The usefulness of the PAS and the importance of studying acculturation from a phenomenological perspective are discussed.