Ethnic Identity Development Measures: Bicultural Involvement Scale

Background

Adapted from the acculturation scale, the bicultural involvement questionnaire was developed by José Szapocznik, William M. Kurtines, and Tatjana Fernandez in 1980 as a multidimensional tool for measuring cultural orientation. Unlike the majority of acculturation measures that preceded it, the BIQ does not assume that involvement in one culture necessitates exclusion of association with another. Rather, the BIQ assesses individuals' degree of comfort with host-culture norms and the practices of their culture of origin, simultaneously.

Measure Description

The BIQ is structured on a five-point Likert-type scale. Respondents provide self-report ratings, ranging from “not at all comfortable” to “very comfortable,” for 24 items and rate their preferences for the remaining 9 questions by marking whether they would prefer the items to be “completely” Hispanic or American, “mostly” Hispanic or American, or “both” Hispanic and American. Questions target individual preferences and practices related to language use, food, music, holiday celebration, and other traditions. Both Spanish and English copies are available.

Scoring

The measure consists of two subscales, each reflecting the degree of association reported by an individual to a specific culture (e.g., Americanism and Hispanicism). Subscale scores are computed by summing the items reflective of involvement in that particular culture. For example, Americanism scores consist of the sum of items associated with involvement in American culture (e.g., “How comfortable do you feel speaking English at home?” and “How much do you enjoy American music?”). Similarly, Hispanicism scores are computed by summing items reflective of Hispanic culture.

Scores are then computed for two conceptually independent, bipolar dimensions. The first dimension, the Biculturalism Scale, ranges from monoculturalism to biculturalism and is computed by subtracting one subscale from the other (e.g., Hispanicism minus Americanism). Scores approaching 0 on this dimension are reflective of biculturalism, and scores deviating from 0 reflect monoculturalism. Within the context of the aforementioned example, a large positive-difference score on the biculturalism dimension would indicate Hispanic monoculturalism, whereas a large difference score in the negative direction would indicate American monoculturalism. The second [Page 185]dimension within the BIQ, the Cultural Involvement Scale, ranges from cultural marginality to cultural involvement and is computed by summing the two scale scores (e.g., Hispanicism plus Americanism). Higher scores reflect a greater degree of overall cultural involvement, and lower scores reflect cultural marginality or a lack of involvement with either culture.

Psychometrics

During instrument development, adequate internal consistency was demonstrated. Alpha coefficients for Hispanicism, Americanism, biculturalism, and cultural involvement were reported to be .93, .89, .94, and .79, respectively. Test–retest reliability, evaluated over 6-week intervals, ranged from .14 to .79. Criterion-related validity was examined using teacher report ratings of biculturalism on a five-point scale. The measure was found to best predict biculturalism among children living in bicultural environments.

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