The structure and validity of acculturation. Analysis of an acculturation scale

This paper presents data from a study of acculturation in 291 Greek Cypriot immigrants from the general population of Camberwell, south London. Factor analysis was carried out, and factors were extracted using the maximum likelihood method and subjected to oblique rotation. The best solution was based on two highly correlated factors (0.64), which together explained 28% of the variance. The first factor appeared to represent Cultural Identification, the second, Language Mastery/Ethnocentricism. The construct validity of the factors was substantiated by analyses relating them to a range of other variables likely to be correlated with acculturation. Issues concerning the measurement of acculturation are discussed.