| The purpose of this study was to develop and validate the Multidimensional Chinese Acculturation Measure (MCAM). Since the unidimensional measure of acculturation is not appropriate for the contemporary population of Chinese decent, the MCAM employs the bidimensional multi-domain model of acculturation and includes two subscales: Involvement in the American Culture subscale (MCAM-A) and Involvement in the Chinese Culture subscale (MCAM-C). Each subscale includes six domains (i.e., language, food, leisure activity, cultural participation, ethnic interaction, and values) that are salient to the construct of acculturation. An initial 56-item MCAM was pilot tested with a sample of 54 participants. The final version of the MCAM includes 58 items with 29 items in each subscale and was validated following Messick's (1995) validation framework in this study. Each item is rated on a 5-point Likert-type rating scale.; Five hundred and eighty-five Chinese or Chinese-Americans completed the usable MCAM and other self-report measures online. The Multidimensional Random Coefficients Multinomial Logit Model (MRCMLM; Adams, Wilson, & Wang, 1997) was used to scale the data. Six negative-worded items were excluded from the analyses because they exhibited misfit. Overall, the results provide strong support for the content, structural, generalizability, and external aspects of validity for the MCAM. The MCAM was the first acculturation measure in the history that was rigorously validated following an advanced validity model (Messick, 1995) and item response theory. A few remaining concerns within the MCAM were discussed and modifications were proposed. The results indicated that the bidimensional model was more appropriate than the unidimensional model. However, the results also suggested that the structure of the acculturation construct appeared to be different for ABC and NBC because the two groups exhibited different patterns in their responses on the MCAM. Hence, different acculturation measures and models were recommended. Based on the recent trend in the literature of acculturation (Chung et al., 2004; Le Espiritu, 1992; Roosens, 1989), one of the recommendations was to add a Chinese-American Pan-ethnic dimension for ABC's acculturation model. Strengths and limitations of this study were discussed. Directions for future studies were proposed. |
