Acculturation as a Determinant of Greek-American Family Values

Abstract

A Greek Family Values questionnaire along with the Greek-American Acculturation Scale was administered to 338 Greek-American subjects. Based on responses to the Greek-American Acculturation Scale, subjects were placed into Traditional and Acculturated groups. The 64 items of the Family Values Scale were factor analyzed and a scree analysis produced four interpretable factors. Subjects in both the Traditional and the Acculturated groups tended to agree with items comprising the factors' Traditional Values and Family Honor. The groups tended to differ on most items comprising the Hierarchical Family Values factor and on some items comprising the Parental Control factor. The Acculturated subjects tended to reject the constructs rooted in Greek family values more than the traditional subjects, while women tended to be more rejecting of the values than were men. Evidence presented here also suggests that the Greek-American Acculturation Scale has sufficient validity and reliability to be used by researchers as an accurate measure of Greek-American acculturation.