Psychological acculturation: Development of a new measure for Puerto Ricans on the US mainland

Most instruments designed to measure acculturation have relied on specific cultural behaviors and preferences as primary indicators of acculturation. In contrast, feelings of belonging and emotional attachment to cultural com munities have not been widely used. The Psychological Acculturation Scale ( PAS) was developed to assess acculturation from a phenomenological perspect ive, with items pertaining to the individual's sense of psychological attac hment to and belonging within the Angle-American and Latino/Hispanic cultur es. Responses from samples of bilingual individuals and Puerto Rican adoles cents and adults are used to establish a high degree of measurement equival ence across the Spanish and English versions of the scale along with high l evels of internal consistency and construct validity. The usefulness of the PAS and the importance of studying acculturation from a phenomenological p erspective are discussed.