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4 A Novel Brief Measure of Acculturation and its Association with Subjective and Objective Cognition
- Luis D Medina, Andrea Ochoa Lopez, Joshua M Garcia
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- Journal:
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society / Volume 29 / Issue s1 / November 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 December 2023, pp. 419-420
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Objective:
There is equivocal evidence that acculturation is associated with cognition. Various factors may contribute to ambiguous findings in the neuropsychology setting, including psychometric limitations of tools available for assessing acculturation as well as the frequent conflation of bilingualism with acculturation. Additionally, neuropsychological research on acculturation and cognition has largely failed to account for bidimensional models of acculturation, which have greater empirical support over unidimensional models. In response to these limitations and the theoretical literature on acculturation, we developed the Perceived Identity & Ethnicity Scales (PIES), a brief rating scale system to quickly (<2 minutes) capture an individual's perceived acculturative identity across several domains. In the current study, we sought to (1) provide initial psychometric support of the PIES and (2) examine how it relates to cognition in a culturally and linguistically diverse sample.
Participants and Methods:We recruited 242 individuals from both university and community samples (age=23.7±7.6, range 18-72; <12 Years of Education=4%; 78% Female; 58% Hispanic/Latin American; 69% middle SES; 22% educated outside the USA). In addition to demographic questionnaires, participants completed the PIES; an established measure of acculturation (the Bicultural Involvement Questionnaire, BIQ) and bilingualism (Bilingual Language Profile, BLP); measures of mood (the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scales, DASS; Apathy Evaluation Scale, AES); and of self-reported cognitive functioning (Everyday Cognition, ECog). A subsample of Spanish speakers (n=86) also completed a cognitive battery validated for use in this population (the Spanish English Neuropsychological Assessment Scales, SENAS). For the first aim, we examined the reliability, validity, and dimensionality of the PIES in the full sample. In the Spanish-speaking subsample, we examined the relationship between the tool and both subjective and objective cognition using linear regression controlling for age, education, sex/gender, and premorbid intellectual functioning.
Results:Measures of internal consistency and dimensionality supported a bidimensional model of acculturation; identification with culture of family origin (PIES-O) was not related to identification with US American culture (PIES-U; r=0.036, p>0.05). Cultural preference scores from the BIQ were associated with PIES-O (r=-0.322) and PIES-U (r=0.277; both ps<0.001) in the expected directions. PIES-O (r=0.350) and PIES-U (r=-0.432) were associated with the ability to speak a language other than English on the BLP (both ps<0.001). PIES-U, but not PIES-O, was also strongly associated with other BIQ and BLP scores as well as with receiving education outside of the USA at medium to large effect sizes (rs=0.3 to 0.6; all ps<0.001). In the subsample, PIES-O and PIES-U were not associated with subjective cognition as measured by the ECog (AR2=0.016, p>0.05); global cognition as measured by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA; AR2=0.046, p>0.05); or SENAS cognitive composite scores (AR2=0.016, p>0.05) after controlling for covariates.
Conclusions:Findings provide strong initial psychometric support for the utility of the PIES in the assessment of acculturation. Moreover, these results further support the bidimensional model of acculturation. Acculturation as measured by the PIES was not associated with cognitive abilities in this highly educated and mainly female cross-sectional sample. Longitudinal research accounting for acculturation is needed to elucidate these relationships.
Reporting of Demographic Variables in Neuropsychological Research: An Update of O’Bryant et al.’s Trends in the Current Literature
- Luis D. Medina, Stephanie Torres, Anthony Gioia, Andrea Ochoa Lopez, James Wang, Paul T. Cirino
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- Journal:
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society / Volume 27 / Issue 5 / May 2021
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 12 November 2020, pp. 497-507
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Objective:
Demographic trends and the globalization of neuropsychology have led to a push toward inclusivity and diversity in neuropsychological research in order to maintain relevance in the healthcare marketplace. However, in a review of neuropsychological journals, O’Bryant et al. found systematic under-reporting of sample characteristics vital for understanding the generalizability of research findings. We sought to update and expand the findings reported by O’Bryant et al.
Method:We evaluated 1648 journal articles published between 2016 and 2019 from 7 neuropsychological journals. Of these, 1277 were original research or secondary analyses and were examined further. Articles were coded for reporting of age, sex/gender, years of education, ethnicity/race, socioeconomic status (SES), language, and acculturation. Additionally, we recorded information related to sample size, country, and whether the article focused on a pediatric or adult sample.
Results:Key variables such as age and sex/gender (both over 95%) as well as education (71%) were frequently reported. Language (20%) and race/ethnicity (36%) were modestly reported, and SES (13%), and acculturation (<1%) were more rarely reported. SES was more commonly reported in pediatric than adult samples, and the opposite was true for education. There were differences between the present results and those of O’Bryant et al., though the same general trends remained.
Conclusions:Reporting of demographic data in neuropsychological research appears to be slowly changing toward greater comprehensiveness, though clearly more work is needed. Greater systematic reporting of such data is likely to be beneficial for the generalizability and contextualization of neurocognitive function.