A validation of HCAS: The Host Community Acculturation Scale

In the current study, we tested the construct and predictive validity of the six-factor host community acculturation scale (HCAS; Bourhis, Barrette, & Moriconi, in press; Bourhis & Bougie, 1998) in the Italian social context. The HCAS was applied considering two domains (cultural heritage and employment), and three target groups (the general category of Immigrants, Chinese, Albanians). Results of confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated the convergent and discriminant validity of the scale, both in the culture and employment domain. The predictive validity of HCAS was tested by applying multiple regression with latent variables. We used as predictors: social dominance orientation, right-wing and left-wing political orientation, identification with the Italian ingroup; acculturation orientations were the dependent variables. Overall, findings supported the construct and predictive validity of the scale.