Acculturative Self-Efficacy: A New View on the Acculturation Process for Individuals of Mexican Descent

Acculturation research is increasingly focusing on how Mexicans and Mexican Americans culturally adapt when coming into contact with a dominant culture. Understanding acculturation is important because immigrants who are more acculturated to U.S. culture experience better adjustment, more utilization of mental health services, and more success while living in the United States (Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health, 2001). In spite of an upward trend of research on acculturation and adaptation for individuals of Mexican descent, the literature continues to suggest that there is not “a measure that adequately samples the major behavioral and attitudinal domains related to acculturative change” (Zane & Mak, 2002, p. 54). Until recently, research had not investigated how a Mexican American’s self-efficacy (an individual’s perception of his or her confidence to complete a task; Bandura, 1997) towards acculturation plays a role in successful adjustment to the dominant culture. A pilot study of a new acculturation scale, the Acculturative Self-Efficacy Scale (Rodriguez-Siuts & Hardin, 2008), revealed confidence or self-efficacy (e.g., in speaking English or making European American friends) is indeed an important factor to consider when examining successful cultural adjustment for Mexican Americans living in the United States. The present study was designed to examine a revised Acculturative Self- Efficacy Scale (ASES) that addresses the limitations and concerns found in the pilot study. The results indicated that ASES has good psychometric properties, including good reliability and validity. Additionally, the ASES predicted some aspects of psychological and sociocultural adaptation above and beyond behavioral acculturation, as measured by the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans-II (ARSMA-II).