Development of the Acculturative Hassles Inventory for Russian -speaking elder

The study involved the development of an acculturative hassles measure for Russian-speaking elderly refugees and immigrants. The measure is based on an ecological perspective, which focuses on hassles involving person-environment transactions and occurring in varied life domains. Conceptual and methodological issues in existing instruments are reviewed and efforts to address current limitations are incorporated into the instrument development. Initial instrument development was guided by a series of semi-structured open-ended interviews with elders from the former Soviet Union. Items were identified to assess acculturative hassles in different life domains, such as extended family, social network, health, discrimination, and language. Next, a validity study was conducted with 312 elders from the former Soviet Union. Using both the overall hassles scale scores and its specific domains' scores, several predictions are made relating overall acculturative hassles to life satisfaction, psychological distress, and level of acculturation to both Russian and American cultures and relating domain-specific hassles to domain-specific outcomes. Overall, the scale was found to be reliable and valid with respect to its overall and domain scores. Furthermore, the scale was able to predict outcomes over and above effects of demographic variables and acculturation. Conceptual and methodological implications for the hassles scales development and validation procedures are presented.