Assessment of Biculturalism among U.S. Latinos

Biculturalism comprises the degree to which individuals internalize values, affiliations, attitudes, practices, and beliefs from two cultures and develop competencies to successfully respond to demands from each (Basilio et al., 2014). Predominant theoretical traditions situate biculturalism within either the process of adaption to another culture (acculturation/enculturation; Nguyen & Benet-Martínez, 2007), or the process of bicultural competence development or second-culture acquisition (LaFromboise et al., 1993). Many widely used measures of biculturalism, however, fail to assess the breadth and depth of the construct (Celenk & Van de Vijver, 2011).

We conducted a systematic review of 49 peer-reviewed studies that used the term biculturalism as a keyword and that quantitatively assessed biculturalism among U.S. Latinos, a growing segment of the population. To facilitate an improved understanding of the assessment of biculturalism, we examined how measurement and conceptualization of biculturalism differ among studies focusing on biculturalism versus studies focusing on acculturation/enculturation.

We identified numerous measures (27 unique ones). These measures demonstrated differing psychometric properties, assessed varying cultural domains (e.g., attitudes vs. practices), and employed a range of scoring procedures (e.g., sum scores, cut-off scores). Furthermore, most measures assessed individuals’ degree of acculturation/enculturation (89%), whereas the remainder assessed individuals’ degree of bicultural competence (11%).

We discuss the implications that operationalizing biculturalism through separate assessments of individuals’ identities and/or orientations with two cultures versus assessments of individuals’ bicultural competence, or ability to respond to bicultural demands, pose to our understanding of the mechanisms by which individuals internalize two cultures and develop bicultural competencies.