Mexican American Cultural Values Scale: Considerations for college students

The Mexican American Cultural Values Scale is among the most widely utilized scales to examine Latinx cultural values. Originally conceptualized to assess Mexican American values among adolescent Mexican Americans and their caregivers, the MACVS continues to be relied on for examining Latinx college student outcomes, leading to questions over utilization of the MACVS for this sample. This psychometric study used extant data from undergraduates enrolled in Hispanic-serving institutions (n = 495; 341 Mexican American) to test the internal consistency and MACVS model fit capturing Mexican American Traditional Values (Familism-Obligation, Familism-Obligations, Familism-Referent, Respect, Religion, and Traditional Gender Roles) and Mainstream Values (Material Success, Independence & Self-Reliance, and Competition & Personal Achievement). Confirmatory factor analyses of the higher-order correlated model and alternative models indicated misfit for Mexican American college students, raising concerns regarding its use for this population: X2 (1176) = 3951.72, CFI = .73, TLI = .71, RMSEA = 0.08, SRMR = 0.18. Exploratory analyses intended to broaden the MACVS to non-Mexican American students (n = 154) also indicated misfit and inadequate configural measurement invariance. Together, these findings underscore an emergent need to closely evaluate use of the MACVS beyond intended samples and acknowledge context-dependent influences on cultural values for Mexican American college students.