This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Campos, B. Articles by Schenker, M. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Sharpening the Focus on Acculturative Change

ARSMA-II, Stress, Pregnancy Anxiety, and Infant Birthweight in Recently Immigrated Latinas

University of California, Los Angeles, campos{at}psych.ucla.edu

Christine Dunkel Schetter

University of California, Los Angeles, dunkel{at}psych.ucla.edu

Julia A. Walsh

University of California, Berkeley

Marc Schenker

University of California, Davis

Acculturation is conceptualized as a multidimensional process but is typically measured as a concurrent movement away from culture of origin as a new cultural orientation is obtained. In this study, the authors examined the overall and subscale scoring systems of the ARSMA-II, the most popular acculturation measure, for its associations with stress, pregnancy anxiety, and birthweight in a large sample of pregnant, Mexican-origin women from the Study for Hispanic Acculturation, Reproduction, and the Environment. As predicted, the ARSMA-II's overall acculturation score and two orthogonal subscales, Mexican orientation and Anglo orientation, revealed differing patterns of associations with stress, pregnancy anxiety, and birthweight. Mexican orientation was negatively associated with stress, positively associated with pregnancy anxiety, and not associated with birthweight. Anglo orientation was positively associated with stress and negatively associated with birthweight. The gains to be made in understanding processes that may change with acculturation by incorporating multidimensional analyses of acculturation are discussed.

Key Words: Latina acculturation • stress • pregnancy anxiety • birthweight • ARSMA-II

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?