A New Measurement of Acculturation for Hispanics: The Bidimensional Acculturation Scale for Hispanics (BAS)

Abstract

This article reports the development ofa bidimensional acculturation scaleforHispanics (BAS). The scale provides an acculturation score for two major cultural dimensions (Hispanic and non-Hispanic domains) by including 12 items (per cultural domain) that measure three language-related areas. A random sample of 254 adult Hispanics was surveyed to develop and validate the scale. The scores obtained with the BAS show high internal consistency and high validity coefficients. The scale works well with Mexican Americans and with Central Americans.