Acculturation in a Pretreatment Sample of Latino Adolescents

Abstract

The Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans–II (ARSMA-II) is one of the most widely used measures of acculturation for Latinos. While the ARSMA-II is used quite often, there has been little research examining the latent factor structure of the measure. Furthermore, there has only been one prior study examining the factor structure with a sample of Latino adolescents. The primary purpose of the current study is to test three competing factor models of a brief version of the ARSMA-II in a pretreatment sample of Latino adolescents ( n = 106). Results from confirmatory factor analyses supported a nine-item two-factor structure for the sample in this study. A path analysis indicated that one of the factors was predictive of depressive symptoms but was mediated by the cultural variables familism and ethnic identity. The implications of study findings and suggestions for further refinement of this measure are discussed.