Development and initial validation of the Ethnic Minority Social Self-Efficacy Scale—Asian American version
Asian Americans are reportedly one of the largest growing racial/ethnic minority groups in the United States and have been found to experience a significant amount of interpersonal difficulties (Leong & Okazaki, 2009; Zane & Song, 2007). This study further explored Asian Americans' social experiences and aimed to operationalize Asian American self-efficacy during social interactions with White individuals. The Ethnic Minority Social Self-Efficacy—Asian American Version (EMSSE-AA) was developed to assess Asian Americans' perceived ability to initiate, maintain, and exert efforts to interact with White individuals on a day-to-day basis. Two phases of data collection were used to develop the EMSSE-AA and further assess the scale's psychometric properties. A preliminary study was conducted to generate items and examine the content and process validity of the EMSSE-AA items. The primary study was a quantitative nonexperiemental descriptive design and utilized convenience and snowball sampling methods in both on-line and hard-copy survey formats. Research hypotheses were supported through a series of factor analyses and tests of internal consistency, convergent validity, and discriminant validity using two samples randomly derived from the total 512 sample (Study 1, n = 298; Study 2, n = 214). Findings yielded a two- factor structure, including the Asian American Social Engagement subscale (AASE; 14 items) explaining 46.88% of variance in Study 1 and 48.37% of variance in Study 2. The second factor, the Asian American Social Inhibition subscale (AASI; 8 items) explained 10.44% of variance in Study 1 and 8% of variance in Study 2. A total of 57.33% (Study 1) and 56.37% (Study 2) of variance were accounted for by the entire scale. Evidence for internal consistency of EMSSEAA test items was reflected in Cronbach's alphas ranging from .88 to .96 for both subscales across Sample 1 and Sample 2. Overall findings provide evidence for the construct validity of the EMSSE-AA and measures of acculturation to mainstream culture, ethnic identity, social selfefficacy, social anxiety, and social desirability. Results support the initial assessment of the scale's psychometric properties. Limitations of the current study, implications for future research, and directions for application of findings for counseling psychology are provided.
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