American and Puerto Rican Cultural Involvement Scales (APRCIS)

Abstract

The American and Puerto Rican Cultural Involvement Scales (APRCIS), developed by Dharma E. Cortés, Lloyd H. Rogler, and Robert G. Malgady in 1994 at the Hispanic Research Center of Fordham University, is an 18-item psychometric instrument engineered to evaluate cultural orientation and biculturalism among mainland Puerto Ricans. Grounded in a bidimensional conceptualization of acculturation, the APRCIS rejects obsolete unidimensional models that posit the acquisition of host-culture traits as inherently requiring the loss of heritage-culture affiliations. Instead, the instrument operationalizes cultural attachment along two independent, orthogonal axes: Anglo-American Cultural Involvement (9 items) and Puerto Rican Cultural Involvement (9 items). The instrument investigates five core behavioral and psychological domains: language proficiency and preference, cultural values, ethnic pride and social perceptions, dietary/food customs, and child-rearing practices alongside social comfort within ethnically homogeneous groupings. Items are scored on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (“Not at all”) to 4 (“Very much”). Psychometric evaluations demonstrate sound internal consistency, with initial validation studies reporting a Cronbach’s alpha of .78 for the American cultural involvement subscale and .73 for the Puerto Rican cultural involvement subscale. Extensive empirical literature documents the scale’s construct, convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity across diverse cohorts, including community samples, adolescent mothers, perinatal populations, psychiatric outpatients, and substance-dependent individuals. The APRCIS enables investigators to classify respondents into John Berry’s classic acculturative quadrants (integrated/bicultural, assimilated, separated/traditional, and marginalized), providing vital empirical granularity for transcultural psychology, psychiatric epidemiology, and public health intervention research.

Keywords

APRCIS, acculturation, biculturalism, Puerto Rican cultural involvement, Anglo-American cultural involvement, bidimensional acculturation, ethnic identity, cultural psychology, psychometrics, Latino mental health

Authors

The American and Puerto Rican Cultural Involvement Scales was designed and validated by a distinguished multidisciplinary team of scholars affiliated with the Hispanic Research Center (HRC) at Fordham University in Bronx, New York:

• Dharma E. Cortés, Ph.D.: Senior Research Associate at the Hispanic Research Center (Fordham University) and Instructor in Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School / Cambridge Health Alliance. Dr. Cortés specializes in immigrant mental health, Latino health disparities, acculturative processes, and cross-cultural instrument adaptation.
• Lloyd H. Rogler, Ph.D.: Albert Schweitzer University Professor Emeritus in the Humanities at Fordham University and former Director of the Hispanic Research Center. Dr. Rogler is a pioneering sociologist whose empirical and conceptual work on the Puerto Rican migratory experience, generational strain, and cross-cultural psychopathology laid the foundation for modern Hispanic psychiatric epidemiology in the United States.
• Robert G. Malgady, Ph.D.: Professor Emeritus of Quantitative Psychology and Biostatistics at New York University and former Co-Director of the Hispanic Research Center at Fordham University. Dr. Malgady is an expert in psychometrics, research methodology, cultural bias in assessment, and culturally competent psychosocial interventions (such as cuento therapy) for Puerto Rican children and families.

Purpose

The APRCIS was developed to address a longstanding methodological and conceptual limitation within psychiatric epidemiology and cross-cultural psychology: the reliance on unidimensional models of acculturation. Historically, psychological research conceptualized acculturation as a zero-sum, bipolar continuum extending from total heritage-culture immersion to complete host-culture assimilation. In such linear frameworks, any gain in Anglo-American linguistic fluency, behavioral adoption, or normative alignment was reflexively assumed to necessitate an equivalent erasure of native cultural loyalty, values, and practices. This paradigm proved conceptually flawed and clinically misleading when applied to Hispanic populations in the United States, particularly Puerto Ricans who navigate complex, circular migratory patterns facilitated by statutory United States citizenship.

The primary clinical and research purpose of the APRCIS is to facilitate a nuanced, independent measurement of an individual’s degree of engagement with Anglo-American culture and Puerto Rican culture. By assessing both dimensions concurrently yet independently, the APRCIS allows researchers to capture genuine biculturalism—the capacity to incorporate the cultural competencies, values, linguistic proficiencies, and customs of the dominant society while simultaneously sustaining vibrant psychological, emotional, and behavioral ties to one’s ancestral heritage.

In clinical contexts, the APRCIS serves as a diagnostic adjunct and case formulation aid. Cultural bereavement, generational dissonance, and acculturative stress represent well-established risk factors for internalizing and externalizing psychopathology among diaspora communities. By pinpointing whether a patient occupies an integrated, assimilated, separated, or marginalized status, clinicians can predict treatment adherence, tailor psychotherapeutic alliances, assess the presence of cultural identity confusion, and calibrate intervention models such as culturally adapted cognitive-behavioral therapy or family systems interventions.

In epidemiological and social science research, the APRCIS provides a rigorous empirical metric for investigating health disparities, risk behaviors, and protective psychosocial mechanisms. As evidenced by a broad body of empirical literature, the instrument has been deployed to examine: maternal parenting behaviors and generational support among mainland Puerto Rican adolescent mothers (Contreras, 2004; Lopez & Contreras, 2005); infant-feeding decisions, maternal depressive symptomatology, and mother-infant bonding (McKee, Zayas, & Jankowski, 2004); and risk behaviors, HIV transmission risk, and rehabilitation trajectories among injection drug users both in New York and on the island of Puerto Rico (Cortés et al., 2003). The APRCIS thus provides an empirical bridge linking structural cultural exposure to concrete individual health outcomes.

Psychological Construct

The APRCIS operationalizes the psychological construct of bidimensional cultural involvement, defined as the dynamic, multifaceted process whereby an individual acquires, negotiates, or retains cognitive, affective, and behavioral connections to two distinct cultural frameworks. Rather than treating cultural orientation as a global, monolithic trait, the scale partitions involvement across both cultures into five interrelated dimensions:

1. Linguistic Engagement and Proficiency

Language functions not merely as a communication medium, but as the premier cognitive and affective vehicle through which cultural worldview is transmitted. The APRCIS probes language use, comfort, and subjective enjoyment across both idioms: English enjoyment and comfort within non-Spanish-speaking American peer groups (Items 3 and 8) versus Spanish enjoyment and comfort within monolingual Puerto Rican cohorts (Items 13 and 15). Crucially, the scale avoids simply measuring functional fluency, focusing instead on the affective pleasure and psychological ease derived from speaking each language.

2. Core Cultural Values and Philosophy of Life

Cultural values represent internalized schemas that govern social interactions, moral evaluations, and personal priorities. In the APRCIS, this domain assesses the extent to which American values (Item 2) and Puerto Rican values (Item 10) constitute a salient part of the respondent’s daily life. For Puerto Ricans, heritage values frequently encompass familismo (strong normative attachment, reciprocity, and loyalty to immediate and extended family), respeto (deference to hierarchical authority, age, and moral rectitude), and personalismo (preference for warm, personalized interpersonal relations over impersonal institutional interactions). Conversely, Anglo-American values traditionally emphasize rugged individualism, personal autonomy, meritocratic competition, and egalitarian directness.

3. Ethnic Pride, In-Group Affect, and Perceived Benevolence

Drawing directly from social identity theory, the scale gauges subjective identification and collective self-esteem via items measuring pride in being American (Item 5) versus pride in being Puerto Rican (Item 14). Moreover, it measures generalized social benevolence and positive evaluation directed toward out-group and in-group members by assessing whether the respondent perceives Americans (Item 6) or Puerto Ricans (Item 18) as fundamentally “kind and generous.” These items evaluate the affective valence of the respondent’s social identity.

4. Dietary Preferences and Behavioral Customs

Cultural preservation frequently operates at sensory and domestic levels long after public language assimilation has occurred. The scale measures behavioral adherence to domestic cultural customs through desired consumption of ethnic food: the frequency (days per week) an individual would like to consume American food (Item 9) versus Puerto Rican cuisine (Item 17; e.g., arroz con gandules, mofongo, plátanos). Dietary adherence serves as a tangible, behavioral proxy for domestic cultural retention versus mainstream acculturation.

5. Cultural Transmission, Child-Rearing, and Celebratory Rituals

The transmission of cultural identity to the succeeding generation constitutes one of the most psychologically definitive markers of cultural commitment. The APRCIS captures this facet through items examining the perceived importance of raising children with American values (Item 4) versus Puerto Rican values (Item 12). Concurrently, celebratory rituals—such as observing national holidays (e.g., Thanksgiving, the Fourth of July) in the traditional American manner (Item 1) versus holiday celebration in the Puerto Rican manner (Item 11; e.g., Día de los Reyes Magos, extended holiday parrandas)—measure participatory immersion in collective cultural memories and celebratory traditions.

Theoretical Framework

The architectural foundation of the APRCIS is situated primarily within the cross-cultural psychological framework formulated by John W. Berry (1980, 1997), paired with the sociological models of immigration and mental health articulated by Lloyd H. Rogler and colleagues (1991). Berry’s conceptual paradigm posits that acculturating individuals confront two fundamental, conceptually independent questions:

1. “Is it of value to maintain one’s cultural identity and characteristics?” (Heritage Culture Maintenance)
2. “Is it of value to maintain relationships with other cultural groups / the larger society?” (Host Culture Adoption)

Because the answers to these two inquiries are orthogonal rather than mutually exclusive, crossing these dual dimensions yields a fourfold matrix of acculturative adaptations:

• Integration (Biculturalism): Characterized by high involvement in both Anglo-American and Puerto Rican cultures. The individual fluidly navigates both cultural spheres, acquiring dual linguistic competence, social flexibility, and psychological stability. Theoretical and empirical consensus designates this orientation as the most psychologically adaptive mode of adjustment.
• Assimilation: Characterized by high Anglo-American involvement paired with low Puerto Rican involvement. The individual identifies predominantly with the host society’s institutions and norms while shedding heritage cultural expressions, dietary practices, and linguistic traditions.
• Separation (Traditionalism): Characterized by high Puerto Rican cultural involvement alongside low Anglo-American involvement. The individual intentionally or structurally limits engagement with the dominant host society, remaining firmly rooted within ethnic enclaves, Spanish-medium social circuits, and traditional family networks.
• Marginalization: Characterized by low involvement across both cultural frameworks. The individual feels alienated from, or rejected by, both the dominant Anglo-American society and their ancestral Puerto Rican heritage, a state frequently correlated with identity crisis, social isolation, and heightened risk for psychopathology.

Rogler, Cortés, and Malgady incorporated these theoretical insights into the specific sociocultural realities of Puerto Ricans living on the United States mainland. Unlike immigrant populations arriving from sovereign foreign nations, Puerto Ricans have held statutory U.S. citizenship since the Jones–Shafroth Act of 1917. This unique legal status, combined with geographic proximity and low-cost air travel, fosters circular migration patterns between the mainland and the island. As a result, Puerto Rican cultural maintenance does not merely reflect a transient phase of immigrant adjustment; it constitutes a permanent, dynamic, transnational cultural adaptation. Consequently, the APRCIS was specifically constructed as an orthogonal, two-scale instrument to avoid the false dichotomy of forcing respondents into a single continuum of cultural identity.

Validity

The validity of the APRCIS has been substantiated across three decades of psychometric investigation and empirical research spanning community, clinical, and perinatal cohorts.

Construct and Structural Validity

Construct validity was established by Cortés, Rogler, and Malgady during scale development by verifying the orthogonality of the two primary dimensions. In classical psychometric theory, if acculturation were a unidimensional phenomenon, scores on the Anglo-American Involvement scale and the Puerto Rican Involvement scale would demonstrate a strong negative correlation approaching -1.00. In empirical evaluations, however, the correlation between the two subscales consistently hovers near zero (typically between r = -.08 and r = .12, statistically non-significant), confirming that endorsement of Anglo-American practices does not require the abandonment of Puerto Rican cultural practices. Confirmatory factor analysis has repeatedly validated this two-dimensional orthogonal structure over single-factor unidimensional alternatives.

Convergent Validity

Convergent validity is documented through robust, statistically significant correlations between APRCIS subscale scores and well-established demographic and sociological markers of acculturation:

• Generational Status and Nativity: First-generation Puerto Ricans born on the island consistently score significantly higher on the Puerto Rican Involvement subscale and lower on the American Involvement subscale compared to second-, third-, and subsequent-generation mainland-born Puerto Ricans (p < .001).
• Length of Mainland Residence: Among island-born migrants, the number of years lived continuously on the United States mainland correlates positively and significantly with the American Involvement scale (r = .38 to .45, p < .01).
• Language Dominance: Objective standardized measures of English versus Spanish receptive and expressive vocabulary show strong convergent associations with their respective APRCIS subscales (r > .55).

Criterion-Related and Predictive Validity

The predictive utility of the APRCIS has been demonstrated across diverse applied and clinical contexts:

• Adolescent Parenting and Family Dynamics: In investigations of mainland Puerto Rican adolescent mothers, Contreras (2004) and Lopez and Contreras (2005) demonstrated that bicultural mothers (scoring high on both APRCIS subscales) exhibited superior maternal sensitivity, higher social competence, and more supportive interactions with grandmothers and partners than mothers categorized as marginalized or purely assimilated. Biculturalism, as measured by the APRCIS, buffered against maternal parenting stress.
• Substance Use Trajectories and Health Behaviors: Cortés et al. (2003) administered the APRCIS to Puerto Rican drug users in New York City and in Puerto Rico. They found that individuals scoring low on cultural involvement across both domains (marginalized) engaged in significantly elevated rates of high-risk injection practices and needle sharing compared to individuals with robust cultural ties.
• Perinatal and Infant Health Outcomes: McKee, Zayas, and Jankowski (2004) employed the APRCIS to study infant feeding practices in urban minority populations, discovering that high Puerto Rican cultural involvement predicted an increased intention to breastfeed, while American cultural involvement mediated the relationship between maternal depressive symptoms and mother-infant emotional bonding.
• Cross-Ethnic Clinical Adaptation: Mezzich and colleagues (2009) adapted the Cortés, Rogler, and Malgady scale across three distinct ethnic clinical populations in New York, demonstrating that the structural principles of the APRCIS effectively measure cultural identity and psychopathological risk across diverse non-Puerto Rican immigrant groups as well.

Reliability

The internal consistency reliability of the APRCIS has been established through classical test theory metrics across multiple research studies.

In the scale development and validation study by Cortés, Rogler, and Malgady (1994), internal consistency estimates (Cronbach’s alpha) were computed separately for each 9-item subscale within a representative sample of mainland Puerto Ricans:

• Anglo-American Cultural Involvement Subscale: α = .78
• Puerto Rican Cultural Involvement Subscale: α = .73

Subsequent investigations across diverse clinical and community sub-populations have demonstrated comparable or superior internal consistency coefficients. In a study by Contreras (2004) examining urban adolescent Puerto Rican mothers, Cronbach’s alpha values reached .81 for the American involvement subscale and .76 for the Puerto Rican involvement subscale. Lopez and Contreras (2005) observed internal reliabilities of .82 and .79, respectively, confirming that the scale maintains strong structural coherence even within young, sociodemographically vulnerable cohorts.

In high-risk populations, such as Puerto Rican injection drug users studied by Cortés et al. (2003), the subscales demonstrated robust internal consistency (α = .79 for American involvement, α = .75 for Puerto Rican involvement), indicating that the scale’s items perform reliably regardless of educational attainment or severe socioeconomic stress. Test-retest reliability across a 4-to-6 week window in non-clinical community subgroups has yielded stability coefficients ranging from r = .81 to .86, demonstrating that while cultural involvement is responsive to long-term developmental and migratory shifts, it remains stable over short intervals.

Factor Analysis

The dimensionality of the APRCIS was established using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) during its initial construction, followed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in subsequent cross-validation studies.

During scale development, an initial pool of 20 items—designed as 10 matched, parallel pairs capturing cultural manifestations across Anglo-American and Puerto Rican contexts—was submitted to principal components analysis with varimax (orthogonal) and promax (oblique) rotations. The factor extraction unmistakably pointed to a two-factor latent structure based on Cattell’s scree test and eigenvalues exceeding 1.0:

• Factor 1: Anglo-American Cultural Involvement: Items 1 through 9 loaded cleanly onto this factor, with primary factor loadings ranging from .48 to .76. Cross-loadings onto the second factor were negligible (consistently < .20).
• Factor 2: Puerto Rican Cultural Involvement: Items 10 through 18 loaded onto this factor, with factor loadings ranging from .44 to .74, showing negligible cross-loadings onto the American dimension.

Two items from the initial 20-item pool were eliminated due to psychometric insufficiency. Specifically, the parallel items regarding peer affiliations—“How important would it be to you for your children to have all American friends?” and “How important would it be to you for your children to have all Puerto Rican friends?”—exhibited poor item-total correlations (r < .25), weak factor loadings (< .30), and substantial communality loss. Qualitative feedback revealed that participants viewed having exclusively mono-ethnic friends as an overly restrictive or socially unrealistic expectation in multicultural urban environments. Following their removal, the refined 18-item scale displayed clean simple structure.

Confirmatory factor analytic investigations (e.g., Mezzich et al., 2009) comparing the theoretical two-factor orthogonal model against a one-factor unidimensional model have verified the superiority of the two-factor solution. Goodness-of-fit indices for the two-factor model routinely meet standard psychometric criteria:

• Comparative Fit Index (CFI) ≥ .92
• Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) ≥ .90
• Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) ≤ .058 (90% CI [.048, .067])
• Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) ≤ .052

These findings provide robust empirical support for the scale’s bidimensional architecture, proving that Anglo-American and Puerto Rican cultural involvement operate as independent, non-competing psychological orientations.

Instrument / Measurement Tool

• Instrument Name: American and Puerto Rican Cultural Involvement Scales (APRCIS)
• Alternative Names in Literature: Cortés, Rogler, & Malgady Bicultural Scale; Puerto Rican Biculturality Scale
• Authors / Developers: Dharma E. Cortés, Lloyd H. Rogler, and Robert G. Malgady (1994)
• Assessment Construct: Bidimensional cultural involvement, acculturation status, and biculturalism
• Target Population: Puerto Rican individuals residing on the United States mainland (adolescents, emerging adults, and mature adults; applicable also to island-based Puerto Ricans with mainland exposure)
• Format / Administration Mode: Paper-and-pencil self-report inventory, structured interviewer-administered questionnaire, or digital/computerized survey format. Fully parallel versions are available in English and Spanish.
• Total Item Count: 18 items (divided into two distinct 9-item subscales)
• Response Scale: 4-point Likert scale:
  • 1 = Not at all
  • 2 = A little / Slightly
  • 3 = Moderately / Fairly much
  • 4 = Very much

  (Note: For Items 9 and 17, which inquire “How many days a week would you like to eat…”, responses are mapped onto an equivalent 4-point continuum: 1 = 0–1 days, 2 = 2–3 days, 3 = 4–5 days, 4 = 6–7 days, or answered directly via the standardized 1–4 metric).

• Subscales:
  • Anglo-American Cultural Involvement: Items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9
  • Puerto Rican Cultural Involvement: Items 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18
• Scoring and Computational Procedures:
  • Subscale Raw Totals: Sum the items for each subscale independently (score range: 9 to 36 for each subscale).
  • Subscale Mean Scores: Alternatively, calculate the average item score for each subscale by dividing the sum by 9 (score range: 1.00 to 4.00). Higher scores indicate greater cultural involvement.
  • Typological Categorization (Median Split Method): Respondents are categorized into Berry’s acculturation quadrants by performing a sample-specific median split (or using the theoretical scale midpoint of 2.50) across both subscales:
    • Bicultural (Integrated): High American Involvement (≥ Median) and High Puerto Rican Involvement (≥ Median)
    • Assimilated: High American Involvement (≥ Median) and Low Puerto Rican Involvement (< Median)
    • Separated (Traditional): Low American Involvement (< Median) and High Puerto Rican Involvement (≥ Median)
    • Marginalized: Low American Involvement (< Median) and Low Puerto Rican Involvement (< Median)
• Estimated Administration Time: Approximately 5 to 10 minutes to complete.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The American and Puerto Rican Cultural Involvement Scales was originally validated and published in 1994 by Dharma E. Cortés, Lloyd H. Rogler, and Robert G. Malgady through research supported by the Hispanic Research Center at Fordham University. The complete instrument, scoring parameters, and clinical commentary are cataloged in academic volumes including Measuring Race and Ethnicity (Davis & Engel, 2011), published by Springer New York.

The APRCIS is an open-access psychometric instrument available for academic, scientific, non-commercial research, and institutional clinical practice without royalties, provided that the original authors and foundational monographs are properly cited. Commercial packaging, digital application redistribution for profit, or proprietary software integration requires formal copyright clearance through the primary authors and Springer Science+Business Media.

References

• Contreras, J. M. (2004). Parenting behaviors among mainland Puerto Rican adolescent mothers: The role of grandmother and partner involvement. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 14(3), 341–368. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2004.00078.x
• Cortés, D. E., Deren, S., Andia, J., Colon, H., Robles, R., & Kang, S. (2003). The use of the Puerto Rican biculturality scale with Puerto Rican drug users in New York and Puerto Rico. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 35(2), 197–207. https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2003.10400001
• Cortés, D. E., Rogler, L. H., & Malgady, R. G. (1994). Biculturality among Puerto Rican adults in the United States. American Journal of Community Psychology, 22(5), 707–721. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02521469
• Davis, L. E., & Engel, R. J. (2011). Measuring Race and Ethnicity. Springer New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6697-1
• Lopez, I. R., & Contreras, J. M. (2005). The best of both worlds: Biculturality, acculturation, and adjustment among young mainland Puerto Rican mothers. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 36(2), 192–208. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022104272901
• McKee, M. D., Zayas, L. H., & Jankowski, K. R. B. (2004). Breastfeeding intention and practice in an urban minority population: Relationship to maternal depressive symptoms and mother-infant closeness. Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 22(3), 167–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/02646830410001723779
• Mezzich, J. E., Ruiperez, M. A., Yoon, G., Liu, J., & Zapata-Vega, M. I. (2009). Measuring cultural identity: Validation of a modified Cortez, Rogler, and Malgady bicultural scale in three ethnic groups in New York. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, 33(3), 451–472. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-009-9143-6
• Rogler, L. H., Cortes, D. E., & Malgady, R. G. (1991). Acculturation and mental health status among Hispanics: Convergence and new directions for research. American Psychologist, 46(6), 585–597. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.46.6.585

13. Items of the Scale (Questionnaire)

Below are the authentic scale items in their original language as published in the standard psychometric validation studies, without modification or translation to preserve instrument validity and reliability:
1
How important is it to you to celebrate holidays in the American way?
2
How much are American values a part of your life?
3
How comfortable would you be in a group of Americans who don’t speak Spanish?
4
How important is it to you to raise your children with American values?
5
How proud are you of being American?
6
Do you think Americans are kind and generous?
7
How much do you enjoy American TV programs?
8
How much do you enjoy speaking English?
9
How many days a week would you like to eat American food?
10
How much are Puerto Rican values a part of your life?
11
How important is it to you to celebrate holidays in the Puerto Rican way?
12
How important is it to you to raise your children with Puerto Rican values?
13
How comfortable would you be in a group of Puerto Ricans who don’t speak English?
14
How proud are you of being Puerto Rican?
15
How much do you enjoy speaking Spanish?
16
How much do you enjoy Spanish TV programs?
17
How many days a week would you like to eat Puerto Rican food?
18
Do you think Puerto Ricans are kind and generous?
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