Spanish Translation and Psychometric Validation of a Measure of Acculturative Stress Among Latinx Immigrants in the USA

Background: In the United States, the Latinx community is growing at a faster rate than any other racial or ethnic minority group. Members of this community have been found to experience a number of acculturative stressors after immigrating, including xenophobia, racism, and discrimination. Although several scales have been created in recent years to measure acculturative stress in Spanish-speaking immigrants, they are long, do not have nuanced subscales, or have not been validated in an extremely diverse sample of Latinx immigrants.

Objective: The purpose of the current study was to translate and psychometrically validate the Riverside Acculturative Stress Inventory (RASI) in a diverse sample of Spanish-speaking immigrants.

Methods: A sample of 202 Latinx immigrants in the United States completed the RASI as well as measures of depression and anxiety.

Results: An initial confirmatory factor analysis suggested that the overall subscale factor structure was not an ideal fit for the data. An exploratory factor analysis suggested the retention of four subscales, each with three items, forming a 12-item Spanish RASI short form. As indices of convergent validity, the RASI total score was positively associated with depression and anxiety.

Conclusions: The findings from the study contribute to the literature a brief and valid assessment of acculturative stress in Spanish-speaking immigrants. The RASI Spanish short form holds promise to stimulate research on the unique adversities experienced by Latinx immigrants.