American-International Relations Scale

Roysircar-Sodowsky, G., & Plake, B. S. (1991). Psychometric properties of the American-International Relations Scale. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 51, 207-216.

Describes the development of a multidimensional instrument, the American-International Relations Scale, designed to measure the acculturation of international students, scholars, and academicians. Factor analysis of 481 completed 34-item questionnaires, using varimax rotation, yielded 3 interpretable factors labeled (1) Perceived Prejudice, (2) Acculturation (renamed Social Customs), and (3) Language Usage. No item loaded saliently on 2 or more factors. Subscale intercorrelations support the hypothesis that acculturation occurs along a number of different planes, which may or may not be related to each other.

Sodowsky, G. R., & Plake, B. (1992). A study of acculturation differences among international people and suggestions for sensitivity to within-group differences. Journal of Counseling and Development, 71, 53-59.

490 international students, researchers, and permanent U.S. residents and naturalized citizens at a U.S. university completed the 34-item American-International Relations Scale. Results showed that Africans, Asians, and South Americans were less acculturated than Europeans in terms of perceived prejudice, observance of cultural practices and social ties, and language usage. There also were significant differences for permanent vs. nonpermanent U.S. resident status, length of residence in the U.S., and religion. Themes derived from open-ended responses showed that Ss referred to their religion, values, and a strong need to depend on or seek freedom from an image or symbols of their nationality group, their physical appearance, and their language. Findings suggest that cultural sensitivity involves deep empathy for substantial diversity between groups and for a wide range of behavior within a group.