Advertisement

Bicultural Work Motivation Scale for Asian American college students

  • Yung-Lung Chen
  • Nadya A. Fouad
Article
First Online:

Abstract

The bicultural work motivations of Asian Americans have not yet been comprehensively captured by contemporary vocational constructs and scales. For this study, we conducted two studies on the initial reliability and validity of the Bicultural Work Motivation Scale (BWMS) by combining qualitative and quantitative methods. First, a pilot study was conducted with 14 Asian American college students to assess their motivation to work, and items were generated from the themes developed in the qualitative analysis. Results from the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a stable four-factor structure of the BWMS: Honoring Parents, Family Financial Obligation, Fulfilling Personal Interest, and Being Independent. Adequate reliability and evidence for concurrent and discriminant validity are presented. Implications of the scale for further vocational assessment and research are discussed.

Keywords

Work motivation Bicultural Asian American 

Résumé

Échelle de motivation au travail biculturelle pour les étudiants universitaires américains d’origine asiatique. Les auteurs présentent deux études portant sur le développement de l’Échelle de motivation au travail biculturelle (BWMS) en combinant des méthodes qualitatives et quantitatives. Une étude pilote a été menée auprès de 14 étudiants universitaires américains d’origine asiatique pour évaluer leur motivation au travail, et des items ont été générés à partir des thèmes développés dans les analyses qualitatives. Les résultats des analyses factorielles exploratoire et confirmatoire soutenaient une structure stable en quatre facteurs de la BWMS : honorer les parents, rembourser les emprunts familiaux, satisfaire les intérêts personnels, et être indépendant. Une fiabilité adéquate et des preuves de validité concurrente et discriminante sont présentées.

Zusammenfassung

Bikulturelle Arbeitsmotivations-Skala für asiatisch-amerikanische Studierende. Die Forscher beabsichtigen mit Hilfe zweier Studien die Entwicklung der Bicultural Work Motivation Scale (BWMS) zu prüfen, indem sie qualitative und quantitative Methoden kombinieren. Zuerst wurde eine Pilotstudie mit asiatisch-amerikanischen Studenten durchgeführt, um ihre Arbeitsmotivation einzustufen. Aus der qualitativen Analyse der Themen wurden Items generiert. Ergebnisse der explorativen und konfirmatorischen Faktorenanalyse unterstützen die vier-Faktoren Struktur der BWMS: Eltern wertschätzen, familiäre und finanzielle Verpflichtungen, Erfüllung persönlicher Interessen und unabhängig sein. Eine adäquate Reliabilität und Hinweise für kongruente und diskriminante Validität sind gegeben.

Resumen

Escala de motivación laboral bicultural para estudiantes asiático-americanos. Los investigadores tenían por objetivo investigar dos estudios en el desarrollo de una escala laboral bicultural (Bicultural Work Motivation Scale BWMS) combinando métodos cuantitativos y cualitativos. Primero se desarrollo un estudio piloto con 14 estudiantes asiático-americanos de enseñanza superior para evaluar su motivación laboral y se desarrollaron ítems para las temáticas desarrolladas en los análisis cualitativos. Los resultados de los análisis factoriales exploratorios y confirmatorios dieron soporte a una estructura estable de cuatro factores de la escala BWMS: honrar a los padres, obligaciones financieras familiares, satisfacer el interés personal y ser independiente. Se presentan también la fiabilidad y las evidencias para la validez discriminante y concurrente.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Notes

Acknowledgments

We extend our appreciation and gratitude to Dr. Cindy Walker and Dr. Jane Liu for their support of the scale development in Study 1. This study was supported in part by funding from National Tsing Hua University to the first author.

References

  1. Akaike, H. (1987). Factor analysis and AIC. Psychometrika, 52, 317–332. doi: 10.1007/BF02294359.
  2. Blustein, D. L. (2006). The psychology of working: A new perspective for career development, counseling, and public policy. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
  3. Bryant, F. B., & Satorra, A. (2013). EXCEL marco file for conducting Bryant–Satorra scaled difference Chi square test via LISREL 8. Available from the authors.Google Scholar
  4. Chao, R., & Tseng, V. (2002). Parenting of Asians. In M. H. Bornstein (Series Eds.), Handbook of parenting: Vol. 4, social conditions and applied parenting (2nd ed., pp. 59–93). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
  5. Chen, Y. L., & Fouad, N. A. (2013). Asian American educational goals: Racial barriers and cultural factors. Journal of Career Assessment, 21, 73–90. doi: 10.1177/1069072712454700.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Cheung, F. M., van de Vijver, F. J. R., & Leong, F. T. L. (2011). Toward a new approach to the study of personality in culture. American Psychologist, 66, 593–603. doi: 10.1037/a0022389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  7. Curran, P. J., West, S. G., & Finch, J. F. (1996). The robustness of test statistics to nonnormality and specification error in confirmatory factor analysis. Psychological Methods, 1, 16–29. doi: 10.1037/1082-989X.1.1.16.
  8. Flores, L. Y., Berkel, L. A., Nilsson, J. E., Ojeda, L., Jordan, S. E., Lynn, G. L., & Leal, V. M. (2006). Racial/ethnic minority vocational research: A content and trend analysis across 36 years. The Career Development Quarterly, 55, 2–21. doi: 10.1002/j.2161-0045.2006.tb00001.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Flores, L. Y., & Heppner, M. J. (2002). Multicultural career counseling: Ten essentials for training. Journal of Career Development, 28, 181–202. doi: 10.1177/089484530202800304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. Fouad, N. A., Kantamneni, N., Smothers, M. K., Chen, Y. L., Fitzpatrick, M., & Terry, S. (2008). Asian American career development: A qualitative analysis. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 72, 43–59. doi: 10.1016/j.jvb.2007.10.002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. Fuligni, A. J., Tseng, V., & Lam, M. (1999). Attitudes toward family obligations among American adolescents with Asian, Latin American, and European backgrounds. Child Development, 70, 1030–1044. doi: 10.1111/1467-8624.00075.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Greenfield, P. M., Keller, H., Fuligni, A., & Maynard, A. (2003). Cultural pathways through universal development. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 461–490. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  13. Hansen, J. C., & Lee, W. V. (2007). Evidence of concurrent validity of SII Scores for Asian American college students. Journal of Career Assessment, 15, 44–54. doi: 10.1177/1069072706294514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. Hardin, E. E., Leong, F. T. L., & Osipow, S. H. (2001). Cultural relativity in the conceptualization of career maturity. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 58, 36–52. doi: 10.1006/jvbe.2000.1762.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. Inman, A. G., Howard, E. E., Beaumont, R. L., & Walker, J. A. (2007). Cultural transmission: Influence of contextual factors in Asian Indian immigrant parents’ experiences. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 54, 93–100. doi: 10.1037/0022-0167.54.1.93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. Kim, B. S. K. (2007). Acculturation and enculturation. In F. T. Leong, A. Ebreo, L. Kinoshita, A. G. Inman, L. H. Yang, & M. Fu (Eds.), Handbook of Asian American psychology (2nd ed., pp. 141–158). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
  17. Kim, B. S. K., Wong, Y. J., & Maffini, C. S. (2010). Annual review of Asian American psychology. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 4, 227–260. doi: 10.1037/a0022157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  18. Kline, R. B. (2005). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling. New York, NY: Guilford.Google Scholar
  19. Latham, G. P., & Pinder, C. C. (2005). Work motivation theory and research at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Annual Review of Psychology, 56, 485–516. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.142105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  20. Leong, F. T. L. (2001). The role of acculturation in the career adjustment of Asian American workers: A test of Leong and Chou’s (1994) formulations. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 7, 262–273. doi: 10.1037//1099-9809.7.3.262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  21. Leong, F. T. L., & Gupta, A. (2007). Career development and vocational behaviors of Asian Americans. In F. T. L. Leong, A. G. Inman, A. Ebreo, L. H. Yang, L. Kinoshita, & M. Fu (Eds.), Handbook of Asian American psychology (2nd ed., pp. 159–178). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
  22. Luyt, R. (2012). A framework for mixing methods in quantitative measurement development, validation, and revision: A case study. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 6, 294–316. doi: 10.1177/1558689811427912.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  23. Messick, S. (1995). Validity of psychological assessment: Validation of inferences from persons’ responses and performances as scientific inquiry into score meaning. American Psychologist, 50, 741–749. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.50.9.741.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  24. Miller, M. J., & Kerlow-Myers, A. E. (2009). A content analysis of acculturation research in the career development literature. Journal of Career Development, 35, 352–384. doi: 10.1177/0894845308327739.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  25. Nagata, D. K., Cheng, W. J. Y., & Tsai-Chae, A. H. (2010). Chinese American grandmothering: A qualitative exploration. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 1, 151–161. doi: 10.1037/a0019963.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  26. Park, S. E., & Harrison, A. A. (1995). Career-related interests and values, perceived control, and acculturation of Asian-American and Caucasian-American college students. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 25, 1184–1203. doi: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1995.tb02613.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  27. Phinney, J. S. (1992). The multigroup ethnic identity measure: A new scale for use with adolescents and young adults from diverse groups. Journal of Adolescent Research, 7, 156–176. doi: 10.1177/074355489272003.
  28. Ponterotto, J. G., Gretchen, D., Utsey, S. O., Stracuzzi, T., & Saya, R., Jr. (2003). The multigroup ethnic identity measure (MEIM): Psychometric review and further validity testing. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 63, 502–515. doi: 10.1177/0013164403063003010.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  29. Roberts, R. E., Phinney, J. S., Masse, L. C., Chen, Y. R., Roberts, C. R., & Romero, A. (1999). The structure of ethnic identity of young adolescents from diverse ethnocultural groups. Journal of Early Adolescence, 19, 301–322. doi: 10.1177/0272431699019003001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  30. Ryder, A. G., Alden, L. E., & Paulhus, D. L. (2000). Is acculturation unidimensional or bidimensional? A head-to-head comparison in the prediction of personality, self-identity, and adjustment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 49–65. doi: 10.1037//0O22-3514.79.1.49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  31. Savickas, M. L., & Porfeli, E. J. (2012). Career Adapt-Abilities Scale: Construction, reliability, and measurement equivalence across 13 countries. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 80, 661–673. doi: 10.1016/j.jvb.2012.01.011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  32. Singelis, T. M. (1994). The measurement of independent and interdependent self-construals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20, 580–591. doi: 10.1177/0146167294205014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  33. Tang, M., Fouad, N. A., & Smith, P. L. (1999). Asian Americans’ career choices: A path model to examine factors influencing their career choices. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 54, 142–157. doi: 10.1006/jvbe.1998.1651.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  34. Umbach, P. D. (2004). Web surveys: Best practices. New Directions for Institutional Research, 121, 23–38. doi: 10.1002/ir.98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  35. Ward, C. (2008). Thinking outside the Berry boxes: New perspectives on identity, acculturation and intercultural relations. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 32, 114–123. doi: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2007.11.002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  36. Yeh, K. H. (2006). The beneficial and harmful effects of filial piety: An integrative analysis. In K. S. Yang, K. K. Hwang, P. B. Pederson, & I. Daibo (Eds.), Progress in Asian social psychology: Conceptual and empirical contributions (pp. 67–82). Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.The Center for General EducationNational Tsing Hua UniversityHsinchuTaiwan, ROC
  2. 2.Department of Educational PsychologyUniversity of Wisconsin – MilwaukeeMilwaukeeUSA

Personalised recommendations

Cite article

Buy options