| The current study investigated the reliability, validity and factor structure of the Asian American Racial and Ethnic-specific Identity Inventories (AR/EII) in a sample of 460 Asian American adults. Measurement invariance in the identity subscales across generational status was also examined. The AR/EII consists of 8 subscales representing the 3 stable dimensions (centrality, regard, and ideology) of Asian American racial and ethnic-specific (e.g., Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian) identity as conceptualized in the Asian American Identity Model framework. Responses to the AR/EII were collected via the Internet from individuals of Asian descent living in the continental United States. Confirmatory factor analyses resulted in a 34-item racial identity inventory, and a 34-item ethnic-specific identity inventory for the eight racial and ethnic-specific identity scales and subscales. The eight identity scales and subscales were centrality, public and private regard, transnationalist, connectedness, minority connectedness, knowledge of culture and activist ideologies.; Separate confirmatory factor analysis models were run for each of the 16 racial and ethnic-specific identity factors and achieved adequate fit. Examination of coefficient alphas and interscale correlations suggest that the AR/EII are reliable and valid measures of racial and ethnic-specific identity in Asian Americans. To examine measurement invariance in the racial and ethnic-specific identity inventories, multi-groups confirmatory factor analyses were conducted for each of the 16 racial and ethnic-specific identity factors. Because approximately 65 percent of the present sample was defined as first/1.5 generation (born in an Asian country immigrated between the ages of 1 and 17), measurement differences between this group and the second (and beyond) generation (born in the United States to parents of Asian descent) were examined. Measurement invariance was found in five of the eight racial identity subscales and in four of the eight ethnic-specific identity subscales. Overall, the findings suggest that the AR/EII fit the underlying racial and ethnic-specific identity factor structures better for the second generation than for the first/1.5 generation.; Overall, the findings of the present study suggest that Asian American racial identity and ethnic-specific identity are complex phenomena worthy of further study. Specifically, the experiences of the first and second generations should be studied separately as the identity experiences of these two groups may be very different. |
