Measuring Cultural Socialization Attitudes and Behaviors of Mexican‐Origin Mothers with Young Children: A Longitudinal Investigation

• Author: Chelsea L. Derlan,Russell B. Toomey,Laudan B. Jahromi,Kimberly A. Updegraff,Adriana J. Umaña‐Taylor
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12196
• Published date: 01 July 2016
• Date: 01 July 2016

C L. D Arizona State University

A J. U-T Arizona State University

R B. T University of Arizona

L B. J Teachers College, Columbia University

K A. U Arizona State University

Measuring Cultural Socialization Attitudes and

Behaviors of Mexican-Origin Mothers with Young

Children: A Longitudinal Investigation

We describe the development and psychometric

testing of the Cultural Socialization Behaviors

Measure (CSBM) and the Cultural Socialization

Attitudes Measure (CSAM). The CSBM assesses

cultural socialization behaviors that parents use

with young children, and the CSAM assesses

the attitudes that parents have regarding the

importance of socializing their young children

about their culture. Both measuresdemonstrated

strong reliability, validity, and cross-language

equivalence (i.e., Spanish and English) among

a sample of 204 Mexican-origin young moth-

ers (Mage =20.94 years, SD =1.01) with

4-year-old children. In addition, the measures

demonstrated longitudinal equivalence when

children were 4 and 5 years of age.

Socialization is a critical part of human devel-

opment, and developmental theories (e.g., Bron-

fenbrenner, 1994; Erikson, 1968) have empha-

sized that families are essential in the process of

Chelsea Derlan is now located at Virginia Commonwealth

University, Department of Psychology, PO Box 842018,

Richmond, VA23284-2018 (cderlan1@gmail.com).

Key Words: Attitudes, behaviors, cultural/ethnic/racial

socialization, family relations, measurement equivalence.

socializing children. Among ethnic and racial

minority families, parents engage in numerous

behaviors focused specically on socializing

youth regarding their ethnic-racial heritage

that expose them to the customs and history of

their group; this process has been referred to

as cultural socialization (Hughes et al., 2006).

Parents’ socialization efforts regarding culture

are important because they have been demon-

strated to play a key role in youths’ ethnic-racial

identity development and positive adjustment

(Hughes et al., 2008; Neblett, Rivas-Drake, &

Umaña-Taylor, 2012; Umaña-Taylor, Alfaro,

Bámaca, & Guimond, 2009). In the present

study, we describe two new measures designed

to assess caregivers’ cultural socialization

behaviors and caregivers’ attitudes regarding

the importance of cultural socialization (i.e.,

cultural socialization attitudes) in families with

young children. In addition to presenting the

general psychometric properties of these mea-

sures, we also test the factorial equivalence of

items across English- and Spanish-language

versions of each measure and test each mea-

sure’s longitudinal measurement invarianceover

a one-year period.

Family Relations 65 (July 2016): 477–489 477

DOI:10.1111/fare.12196