Latino/a Values Scale

Abstract

This article describes the development of the Latino/a Values Scale (35 items, 14 reverseworded). Evidence of reliability and validity are presented on the basis of three studies. An examination of the factor structure of the items suggests the presence of the following dimensions: cultural pride, simpatía, familismo, and espiritismo.

Cultural self, personal self: Links with life satisfaction among Mexican American college students.

“…Responses were averaged, with high scores indicating greater adherence to Latino cultural values. Concurrent validity has been supported by significant correlations in the expected directions with other measures that tap into acculturation (i.e., U.S. cultural acquisition) and enculturation (i.e., heritage-culture retention), and discriminant validity was demonstrated by lack of significant correlation with a measure of social desirability (Kim et al, 2009). In addition, test-retest reliability was demonstrated with coefficient alphas of .89 at Time 1 and .78 at Time 2.…”

“…This is particularly important in light of their low college graduation rates when compared with those from other U.S. ethnic groups, including other Latinas/os (National Center for Education Statistics, 2011). Whereas studies have aggregated data across Latina/o groups when studying cultural values, cultural identity, and personal self-esteem (e.g., Kim et al, 2009), and have compared Latinas/os' subjective wellbeing to that of Whites (e.g., Brown, Wallace, & Williams, 2001), the present study considers the significance of within-group relations among heritage-culture retention, personal selfesteem, life satisfaction, and academic grades by focusing solely on Mexican Americans. Additionally, the examination of gender and generation status within the present study represents another layer of within-group differences that needs to be explored and ultimately highlighted to better understand and promote the life satisfaction and academic grades of Mexican American college students.…”

“…This path suggests that greater retention of heritage culture predicts higher levels of personal selfesteem. Although there is a paucity of research explaining the role of heritage-culture retention as an overarching construct (e.g., Kim & Abreu, 2001;Schwartz et al, 2010) in mental health outcomes (e.g., personal self-esteem and life satisfaction) with Mexican American college students, previous research has focused on positive predictive power of its components, namely, ethnic identity (e.g., Phinney et al, 1997;Umaña-Taylor, 2004), cultural values (e.g., Berkel et al, 2010;Gonzales et al, 2008;Kim et al, 2009), and collective self-esteem (e.g., Bettencourt & Dorr, 1997;Crocker et al, 1994;Zhang, 2005) in relation to personal esteem and life satisfaction, albeit with other ethnic groups (e.g., White, Black, Chinese, and Latinos as a whole) and other age groups of Mexican Americans (e.g., adolescents). The present study's findings support and extend this previous research by demonstrating that heritage-culture retention as a whole represents one robust factor that may be positively related to Mexican American college students' personal self-esteem and life satisfaction.…”

“…Adherence to Latina/o cultural values. The 35-item Latino/a Values Scale (Kim, Soliz, Orellana, & Alamilla, 2009) Figure 1. Model of Mexican American college students' life satisfaction and academic grades for the full sample (N ϭ 446) and by gender (men ϭ 178; women ϭ 262).…”

“…to Latina/o cultural values using a total score along with four subscales: (a) Cultural Pride, (b) Simpatía, (c) Familismo, and (d) Espiritismo. The total score was used in the current study to capture an overall adherence to Latina/o cultural values, as suggested by Kim et al (2009), due to low reliability coefficients for the four separate subscales. Participants responded to the items (e.g., "One should work to preserve the language of one's ethnic group" and "One's successes should be attributed to one's family") on a 4-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree).…”