CREATION AND EVALUATION OF AN INSTRUMENT TO MEASURE IMMIGRANT AMERICAN IDENTITY IN SECOND GENERATION ASIAN-AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENTS

The current study examines the construct of immigrant American identity in second-generation Asian Americans who are college students. Current research on defining what American identity is has been political in nature and has not taken into account cultural or psychological constructs (Schildkraut, 2007). Similarly, the current literature on ethnic identity, acculturation, and personal identity in immigrants has been somewhat singularly faceted (Berry, 1997). Often the focus has been mainly on first generation immigrants, while the complexities faced by second-generation immigrants have been ignored. Theoretical research shows that personal identity, ethnic identity, and national identity are pivotal to developing a sense of what it means to be American as a second-generation immigrant (Phinney, Horenczyk, Liebkind, & Vedder, 2001). Thus, this study created 70 items based on Phinney and colleagues’ (2001) model; these items were based in sociopolitical literature (Citrin, Reingold, & Green, 1990; Schildkraut, 2007), ethnic identity literature (Phinney, 1992; Phinney & Devich-Navarro, 1997; Rumbaut, 2004), country of origin influences (Hussain, 2013), acculturation theory (Berry, 1997), and Asian ethnicity literature (James, 1997; Kao & Hebert, 2006; Qin, 2008). Initial item reduction included a bout of peer review (reduced to 43 items) and a pilot study (reduced to 34 items). Main data collection was conducted at a large public university with 206 participants who self-identified as second-generation Asians. Principal component analysis demonstrated a four factor solution with an Eigenvalue set to two, with 34.42% variance explained. Items were reduced to 21 items based on factor loadings. The overall internal consistency of this 21 item scale was good (α = 0.70). Theoretical and psychometric implications of a four factor scale are discussed.