Use of Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans-IT with Substance Abuse Patients

Abstract

The Acculturation Rating ScaleforMexican Americans-II (ARSMA-II) was administered to 105 adult male MexicanAmerican substance abuse patients. The subscales werefound to have good internal reliability (Cronbach's alpha = .87 and .82 for the Mexican Orientation scale [MOS] and the Anglo Orientation scale [AOS], respectively). A Pearson correlation of .69 was obtained between the ARSMA-II acculturation score and Mendoza 's Cultural Lifestyle Inventory cultural shift. A Pearson product moment correlation of .20 (p < .05) was obtained between the ARSMA-II AOS score and the Cultural Identification scale (CIS) Anglo-American identification score. The correlation between the ARSMA-II MOS score and the CIS Mexican American identification score was not significant. Adjustment of cutting scores to determine acculturation levels and modes may be appropriate when the scale is used with a research sample differing from the normative sample on important variables.