A measure of acculturation for Italian Canadians: scale development and construct validation

Abstract

Conceptualizations of the immigrant adaptation process are diverse and often incongruous. There is also a lack of agreement in the interpretation and measurement of constructs underlying the notion of changing ethnicity. In an effort to resolve these differences, this study initially presents a conceptual framework for changing ethnicity by delineating and then integrating its key underlying aspects. This is followed by the development and validation of a multidimensional measure of acculturation for Italian Canadians—one aspect of their ethnic change. Construct validation is based on confirmatory factor analyses of the multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) data. Once validated, the measure is used for an investigation of the relationships between acculturation and some aspects of gender-role perceptions of Italian-Canadian spouses. The paper is concluded with a brief discussion on the possibility of extending the application of our measure to other ethnic groups in North America.