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Updated: Jun 10, 2025

A Modified Trier Social Stress Test for Vulnerable Mexican American Adolescents
Published on: July 10, 2017
Development and initial validation of the Immigrant Optimism Questionnaire (IOQ) for immigrant-origin young adults
Maria Alejandra Arce1, Gabriel P Kuperminc1
1Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
None:
Immigrant optimism has been identified as a cultural protective factor that could be targeted in prevention efforts that support immigrant well-being. However, to date, immigrant optimism has not been consistently operationalized. We report on an iterative and collaborative approach to develop and validate a measure of immigrant optimism.
Methods:
Content validity was established using feedback from immigrant-origin young adults and from experts in the field. Then, using survey data from 241 immigrant-origin young adults, we examined reliability, validity, and invariance of our measure among first- and second-generation immigrants.
Results:
Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a single immigrant optimism factor explains significant variation in each of our indicators. Our measure was further invariant across first- and second-generation immigrant youth and demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity.
Conclusions:
Findings support the use of our measure with immigrant-origin young adults. We offer considerations for future research and highlight implications for prevention efforts.
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