Development and validation of a psychosocial adaptation scale for migrant women (PAS-MW)

This study aimed to develop and validate a self-report scale to measure the psychosocial adaptation of migrant women, integrating dimensions of psychological and sociocultural adaptation. After a literature review and focus group with migrant women, the Psychosocial Adaptation Scale for Migrant Women (PAS-MW) with 22 items was developed. For the validation, we conducted (I) the evaluation of internal consistency, sensitivity, difficulty, and reliability of the items, (II) exploratory factor analysis, (III) analysis of construct validity (convergent, discriminant, comparison between known groups and correlations), and (IV) predictive criterion validity. Factor analysis identified two most significant factors, representing components of psychological adaptation (Factor 1) and sociocultural adaptation (Factor 2). The final scale showed great internal consistency (α = 0.87, ω = 0.875, KMO = 0.850, and Bartlett's significant). The construct and criterion validity were significant and consistent with the previous theory. The PAS-MW offers a specific instrument for assessing the psychosocial adaptation process of migrant women. Future studies could explore the application in diverse cultural contexts and compare its results between different groups of migrant women.