Acculturative Stress in Children: A Modification of the SAFE Scale

The following is a preliminary report of the psychometric characteristics of a modified version of the Societal, Attitudinal, Familial, and Environmental Acculturative Stress Scale (SAFE). The modified version, the SAFE-C, was designedfor use with school-age children. To assess its reliability and validity, the SAFE-C was administered to Latino and Euramerican children between the ages of 8 and 1O years. Cronbach s alpha revealed an internal consistency of .86. In addition, a multivariate analysis of variance found significant differences between the Latino and Euramerican groups, with Latino children scoring higher on the SAFE-C, thereby helping to establish the validity of the measure. It is suggested that the SAFE-C will facilitate more meaningful research into the acculturative process for Latino children.