Short Acculturation Scale for Hispanics (SASH-Y and SASH) Reliability and Validity in Low-Income, Mexican-Heritage Youth and Parents

The Short Acculturation Scale for Hispanics (SASH) is a popular acculturation measure. Although SASH has been validated, conflicting information has been published about the youth version (SASH-Y). We examined the psychometric properties (i.e., validity and reliability) of SASH-Y in low-income, Mexican-heritage youth (aged 8-18; n = 100) and SASH with their parents (n = 100; total N = 200). Confirmatory factor analyses comparing the three published structural variations of the SASH-Y revealed the three-factor structure originally proposed for SASH-Y fit the data best, and the frequently used unidimensional structure did not fit. The adult SASH fit parent data well. For researchers interested in comparing parent and child scores (e.g., acculturation gap research), we examined the 10 identical parent and child items for invariance. Invariance was established for parent and child data with the traditional SASH structure. However, internal consistency was inadequate for the child data regardless of variable structure. Implications are discussed.