Description

The Biculturalism Measure was designed to assess the degree to which individuals live according to both Native American and White-American cultural ways of life. It is grounded in Orthogonal Cultural Identification Theory (OCIT) (Oetting & Beauvais, 1990–91), which argues that identification with different cultures is independent (orthogonal) rather than opposite ends of a single continuum. Moran et al. (1999) applied this theory to American Indian adolescents, demonstrating that Native and White cultural identifications can coexist without diminishing one another.

  • The measure consists of two parallel subscales:
  • Living life in the Native American way (3 items)
  • Living life in the White-American way (3 items)

Items ask respondents to rate the extent to which they, their immediate family, and their close friends live by each cultural way of life. This structure provides an indicator of bicultural identity and cultural orientation

AI/AN Communities where the measure has been used

  • Moran et al. (1999): American Indian adolescents in the Pacific Northwest.
  • Patterson et al. (2015): Native Americans from Arizona, New Mexico, New York, and Oklahoma and from North Carolina, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Montana.

Demographics of AI/AN participants where the scale has been used

  • American Indian adolescents (Moran et al., 1999).
  • Native American adults (18 years or older) with access to landline or wireless telephones (Patterson et al., 2015).

Notes on adaptations or modifications

  1. Adapted from Moran (1999) and Oetting & Beauvais (1991).
  2. Patterson et al. (2015) streamlined the measure to three core items per culture and explicitly added the “close friends” item as a marker of cultural orientation.

Modality and administration

Self-report; administered via computer-assisted telephone interviews

Scoring

  • Items rated on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from “Not at all” (1) to “A lot” (4).
  • Each subscale (Native American way and White-American way) consists of three items.
  • Scores are typically summed or averaged within each subscale, though aggregation methods vary across studies.

Psychometric evidence

Reported reliability: Cronbach’s α = .74 (Native American way) and .80 (White-American way) in Patterson et al. (2015). Earlier studies reported reliability coefficients in the .70s range.

Citation(s)

Original Citations:

  • Oetting, E. R., & Beauvais, F. (1990–91). Orthogonal cultural identification theory: The cultural identification of minority adolescents. International Journal of the Addictions, 25(5A–6A), 655–685.
  • Moran, J. R., Fleming, C. M., Somervell, P., & Manson, S. M. (1999). Measuring bicultural ethnic identity among American Indian adolescents: A factor analytic study. Journal of Adolescent Research, 14(4), 405–426.

Example use Citation:

  • Patterson-Silver Wolf Adelv Unegv Waya, D. A., Welte, J. W., Barnes, G. M., Tidwell, M. C., & Spicer, P. (2015). Sociocultural Influences on Gambling and Alcohol Use Among Native Americans in the United States. Journal of Gambling Studies, 31(4), 1387–1404. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-014-9512-z

Disclaimer: The included citations are not exhaustive, but represent the examples we had access to. If you are an original author or have other work that could be included here, please contact us.