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Malinchismo is a recently documented concept which refers to giving preference and privilege to the culture, ideas, tastes and behaviors of another nation or culture over one’s own (Carrillo, Pérez, Carrillo, Carrillo, & Carrillo, 2015). The term itself stems from the legend of a native slave woman around the end of the 15th century named “La Malinche” who was considered a traitor because she was companion and lover to the Spanish Conquistador, Hernán Cortés. Malinchismo is still observable in Mexico today, especially among youth, who are actively constructing social and cultural identities during adolescence, and who now have access to many more foreign cultures via modern globalization avenues. However, malinchismo has not yet been connected to the psychological or developmental literatures, and remains understudied among youth due to the lack of a measurement tool. To this end, the goal of this paper is to embed malinchismo in post-colonial, social identity, and remote acculturation theories, and describe the validation of the first Malinchismo Scale for adolescents using a sample of youth from San Luis Potosí, Mexico. The development of a valid and reliable Malinchismo Scale for adolescents will propel future research on this phenomenon in Mexico and elsewhere.
The History and Context of Malinchismo in Mexico
Deriving its meaning from the collaboration bet ween La Malinche (native slave) and the Spanish in the process of colonizing Mexico centuries ago, Malinchismo connotes being traitorous to one’s origins, or betrayal of one’s own culture and nationality in favor of cultural models and goods from abroad (Carrillo, et. al., 2015; Heredia, 2008). La Malinche, is named “la chingada” in Octavio’s Paz (1950) book The labyrinth of solitude, meaning “the raped mother”, and was reformulated by Crhová and Estandón (2011) to be a character who betrays his people by having a preference for foreign things.
The term “malinchista”, therefore, refers to those who have adopted preferences or conduct from abroad, and favor products, people, customs, traditions that come from outside their country while showing contempt for the domestic (Morett, 2014). Rodríguez (2009) refers to malinchismo as the purchase of imported products with the idea that they are of higher quality and status. For example, there are known brands made with Mexican raw materials and labor that are sold at a higher price simply because they bear a foreign brand name.
The United States as target of Mexican Malinchismo.
At first, Spain, the colonizer, was the desired country and culture targeted by Mexican malinchismo, even after Mexico’s independence (Paz, 1950). This remained so until the other ‘children of the malinche’ appeared (Pardo, 2013) and the target of affection shifted to the United States. The signing of the Guadalupe agreement in 1848 at the end of the Mexican-American war was likely to have played a role. This bilateral agreement ceded significant territory, including California, and roughly 100,000 individuals originally counted as part of Mexico, to the United States (Pardo, 2013). This was a significant historical event that meant the abrupt and artificial creation of transnational communities and families, and may have begun shifting the gaze of resident Mexicans towards the United States as a particularly desired destination. An affection for the United States is reflected in the literature: Crhová y Escandón (2011) have focused malinchismo on preference for goods from the United States.
The phenomenon of malinchismo has also been noticed elsewhere in Latin America (e.g., Heredia, 2008). For example Mastrodoménico (2011) refers to the adoption of lifestyles in Colombia from external groups to which the person does not belong, thus extending the term “malinchista” to any Latin American [and possibly to other former/current colonized countries globally]. This scholar’s description of the phenomenon includes negative race-based treatment towards people who have physical characteristics which differ from those of the colonizers. The ideology of malinchismo has also been described as permeating scientific fields and the process of publishing in Latin America because Mexican journals tend to be less preferred than foreign outlets (Carrillo, et. al. 2015). The current study builds on prior Latin American publications cited here by introducing Malinchismo to a broader international audience, given that other post-colonial regions may also experience this phenomenon.
Theoretical Perspectives Relevant to Malinchismo
Post-Colonial Theory. Post-colonial theory is clearly relevant to malinchismo. “Postcolonial studies… would incorporate the study of all the effects of European colonization in the majority of the Cultures of the world” (Payne & Rae, 2010, p. 562). In fact, the colonial vision of the world extended beyond the end of colonial rule into neocolonialism, taking the form of economic, ethnic, and gender factors that dominate in settings where economic power, Western culture, and androcentrism exist (Estermann, 2014). There is wide acknowledgment that “all post-colonial societies are still subject in one way or another to overt or subtle forms of neo-colonial domination, and independence has not solved this problem” (Ashcroft, Griffiths, & Tiffin, 1995, p. 2). Part and parcel of colonialism is the inculcation of the ideology of inferiority of the native culture replaced by a doting gaze towards the presumed superiority of the colonizer (Ashcroft, Griffiths, & Tiffin, 1995). These manufactured sentiments in post-colonial nations can be transferred to neocolonial powers with stature in the global capitalist system, such as the United States. Bishop (1995) describes Western education, as a weapon because it is taught globally and represents a dehumanized, objectified ideology which is used to control the physical environment, an ideology which is incompatible with some native views of ideal human-environment relations.
Social identity theory. Social identity theory can also be applied to understanding malinchismo. Social identity is the concept of self that a person derives from the perception of belonging or membership to different social groups (Hogg & Vaughan, 2010). Marín and Sell (2012) affirm that there are groups in which belonging is established only by birth (e.g., nationality); however, other social groups are selected by a person to provide their social identity. Ingroup(s) are social groups to which people belong and outgroup(s) are ones to which they do not belong and from which they want to distance themselves, often through prejudices and stereotypes (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). The more an individual identifies with a group, the more central it is to their self-concept, and the status of this ingroup is higher than the group(s) to which it is compared. Interestingly, the malinchista favors the outgroup while still being identified with the ingroup.
Remote Acculturation Theory. Remote acculturation theory adds something unique to our understanding of malinchismo. Acculturation is a process of cultural and psychological change which occurs after contact with a new culture ( Sam & Berry, 2016) and remote acculturation is a non-migrant form of acculturation based on cultural exposure to distant cultures via globalization (Ferguson & Bornstein, 2012). Mexicans have had contact with multiple foreign cultures though a variety of globalization avenues including former colonization, current back-and-forth migration and transnationalism, as well as increasingly accessible global media and technology (Hernández, 2016). In particular, the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí places sixth in terms of highest emigration to the United States (Consejo Nacional de Población, 2012) with 62% of its municipalities characterized as having a ‘medium’, ‘high’, or ‘very high’ migration rate. Friends and family who return to Mexico or send products from the United States introduce those in the home country to elements of U.S. culture, which can engender a fondness for the U.S. culture and subsequent remote acculturation.
According to remote acculturation theory, remotely acculturating individuals choose the degree to which they will maintain local cultural identity and practices and the degree to which they will adopt/ reject foreign cultural influences (Ferguson, 2013). Remotely acculturating individuals will experience changes in their behaviors, values, and/or identities depending on those cultural preferences. One can choose to maintain one’s local culture and reject out-side influences (remote separation), maintain one’s local culture while also adopting outside influences (remote integration), fully adopt foreign culture(s) while loosening one’s connection to the local culture (remote assimilation), or withdraw from both local and foreign cultural affiliations (remote marginalization). Remote separation and remote integration, respectively, have been the most commonly identified remote acculturation profiles in studies among adolescents and emerging adults in Jamaica, South Africa, and Zambia. Remote assimilation is a much less common outcome and has only been found in Malawi to date: a substantial minority of adolescents who had lived at least half their lives in Malawi reported a strong orientation to British culture but a weak orientation toward their own local Malawian culture (K. Ferguson, Y. Ferguson, & G. Ferguson, 2017). Malinchismo can be considered a type of remote assimilation.
Adolescence is considered to be a sensitive period for remote acculturation because identity formation is a central task during this developmental stage (Erikson, 1968). Social and cultural identities are perhaps most readily influenced by cultural globalization because modern adolescents are now offered many more possibilities for self and identity (Jensen, Arnett, & McKenzie, 2011). For example, Ferguson and Bornstein (2012) found that remote integration - “Americanized Jamaican” profile in Jamaica - was three times more likely to occur among adolescents (33% of urban adolescents sampled) than among adults (11% of mothers). In Mexico, Lorenzo-Blanco and colleagues recently found that an orientation towards foreign cultural experiences is associated with poor health habits -- adolescents who were more oriented towards watching English language movies had more positive attitudes towards and were more susceptible to smoking (Lorenzo-Blanco et al., 2017).
Prior Empirical Research on Malinchismo
Our literature search for empirical work focusing specifically on malinchismo produced two student theses, a book chapter, and one empirical journal article. However, all four studies involved adult samples rather than youth, and only one study measured malinchismo with a scale (a brief subscale to be precise) whereas the others used idiosyncratic single items written by researchers for their particular studies. Leija’s and Nava’s joint (2010) undergraduate thesis found that 70% of young adult participants chose ‘brand’ as a purchasing criterion whereas only 24% chose based on their nationality, indicating low own-country preference in consumer purchases. Juarez’s (2011) dissertation study on malinchismo investigated whether Mexican adults considered themselves better than foreigners and whether they identified with other cultural lifestyles. She found that only 32% showed own-country preference, 23% remained neutral, and about 43% identified more with other countries. Similarly, in a sample of Mexicans adults from Central Mexico, Crhová y Escandón (2011) reported in their book chapter 36.36% had a preference for foreign things or making purchases in the United States.
In their recent journal article, Vasquez-Parraga and Valencia (2017) defined malinchismo as a “generic notion of love of the foreign [which] is shared with the other Latin American countries” (p. 13), and administered a four-item malinchismo scale to mostly Latino adults in the United States (89% of the sample was U.S. immigrants, with the remaining minority being residents in Latin America). They reported a reliability coefficient of .72 for the malinchismo subscale and indicated that longer length of residence outside of the country of origin was associated with lower malinchismo.
Current Study
The growth of research evidence on malinchismo has been limited by the absence of a valid and reliable measure for adolescents. Such a measure would make an important contribution to science because the developmental stage of adolescence is a sensitive period for remote acculturation, hence also for malinchismo. A more comprehensive and rigorously validated malinchismo scale for adolescents is needed (i.e., longer than a brief 4-item screen, and demonstrating multiple types of validity as well as reliability). Hence, the purpose of this study is to introduce and validate a new Malinchismo Scale for adolescents using a sample of adolescents living in Mexico. We aimed to establish adequate content and construct validity in this sample expecting that malinchismo would correlate positively with outgroup preference and correlate negatively with ingroup preference.
Method
We used a sequential derivative methodology meaning that different samples and phases of data collection were required (Hernández, Fernández and Baptista, 2014). Participants. A total of 560 adolescents from two institutions in San Luis Potosí, Mexico completed paper surveys. The validity of the Malinchismo Scale was assessed using two convenience samples collected from two different schools. The first sample of 366 participants (M age =16.18 years, SD = .74, range =14 -19; 38% male) was used to compute the exploratory factor analyses (EFA). The second sample of 194 participants (Mage = 16.17, SD = 1.06, range =15 - 21) was then recruited in order to compute the confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). Both samples excluded participants who failed a lie test item (i.e., “robo dinero para comprar cosas de otro país” [I steal money just to purchase foreign goods] approximately 5% of the original sample where excluded with these procedure, suggested by Cohen & Swerdlick, 2006).
Measures
Malinchismo Scale Construction . Altogether 56 items were written to measure malinshismo guided by our understanding of the definition of the construct (per the preceding literature review) combined with general observations of the Mexican society. These 56 scale items were crafted to assess malinchismo in four dimensions: Favoring Foreign Entertainment (10 items), Favoring Foreign People (13), Favoring Foreign Food (13) and Favoring Foreign Products (20). Participants responded to each item on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (nunca/never) to 5 (siempre/always) and reverse-scored items were re-calculated. After a series of steps were completed to assess the validity of the measure (detailed in plan of analysis below), a 9-item Malinchismo Scale remained: Favoring Foreign Entertainment (2 items), Favoring Foreign People (2), Favoring Foreign Food (2) and Favoring Foreign Products (3). See Appendix A for the final Malinchismo Scale.
Intheretnic Ingroup Bias Test. The 14-item In-group Interethnic Bias Test was administered (α =.82; Rojas, Garcia, & Navas, 2003), which measures positive attitudes towards one’s own native culture, and towards “foreign” cultures. Slight adaptations to this measure were made such that participants rated positive attitudes towards their own countrymates, and also towards foreigners (e.g., given that the measure was originally designed for Spaniards, the reference to ‘Spanish’ was changed to read ‘Mexicans’ and ‘Maghreb’ was changed to read ‘foreigners’).
Plan of Analysis
First, content validity was assessed using the responses of content experts in the content areas of culture and adolescent development, who served as judges. Judges were asked to evaluate the original 56 items considering three criteria: relevance/utility, ability to discriminate or classify, and clarity of syntax/semantics. Aiken’s V (1980) was then calculated as it is used to summarize item content-relevance ratings from a panel of expert judges, and items with values below .70 were dropped. Second, exploratory factor analyses (EFA) were conducted on the remaining items with the Factor 10.3 program using the method of extracting unweighted least squares factors with a normalized direct Oblimin rotation (Lorenzo-Seva, 2000). We used a parallel analysis based on minimum rank factor analysis to get the appropriated dimensions (Timmerman & Lorenzo-Seva, 2011). Items with EFA loadings below .4 were then dropped. Third, confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) on remaining items were performed using AMOS 21.0 software and maximum likehood to obtain estimates and after discarding poorly fitting items, the remaining items comprised the final Malinchismo Scale. Fourth, analyses to examine convergent and discriminant validity were computed. It was expected that the Malinchismo Scale score would correlate positively with the outgroup preference factor of the Interethnic Ingroup Bias Test and correlate negatively with the ingroup preference factor.
Results
Content Validity
For the content validity, we kept the items that displayed a mean value less than .7 as suggested by Soto and Segovia (2009). Five items with Aiken’s V loadings below .7 were discarded leaving 51 items. The initial mean Aiken’s V was .87 (utility .87, discriminate/classify .86 and semantics .88) and the final value was .9 having a confidence interval with lower limit .66 and upper limit .97. This is considered adequate content validity; therefore; we proceeded with the remaining items.
Construct Validity
In regard to EFAs, a cumulative variance of 0.51 was obtained across all four factors, whose constituent items had a factorial load higher than 0.4 (EFA loadings of 38 items retained after dropping those with coefficients < .4). The adequacy of the correlation matrix was demonstrated with a determinant of= 0.000000005498811, Bartlett’s statistic = 6685.1 (df = 703; P = 0.000010), and a very good Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test = 0.90970. There was also strong goodness of fit: Comparative Fit Index (CFI) =0.89, Goodness of Fit Index (GFI) = 0.99, and Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index (AGFI) = 0.98. Bentler’s simplicity index for the scale was .99 and the loading simplicity index was .71 (see Bentler, 1977; Lorenzo-Seva, 2003). The scale also achieved the Root Mean Square Residual (RMSR) of .0341, which is lower than Kelley’s (1935) Criterion of .052.
The different CFA models are described in Table 1. The first model started with the remaining items of the EFA, we proceed to erase items based on Standardized Residual Covariances (SRC), the second model start without the items 1, 10, 29 & 44. The third model continue searching for the ideal characteristics, to achieve that goal we drop the items: 1, 5, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 46,49 and 50, only retaining 13 items to preserve the four initial factors, most of the ideal characteristics where achieved except the p value for the model. The final model provided the following psychometrics results, indicating it to be a good model: Chi-square = 29.98 with Degrees of freedom = 20; relative model of 1.49 with a probability level = 0.070 (Hu and Bentler, 1999). See Figure 1 for the final retained model. The Comparative Fit Index of .985 was ideal with a Goodness of Fit Index of .969 (Adjusted .93), a Root Mean Residual of .044, and an adequate Square Root Median Residual (SRMR) of .0019 (less than .09). The Root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) was moderate (.051) with a P-Close of 0.448 according to the threshold indicated by Hu and Bentler (1999), Arias (2008), Batista-Foguet, Coenders, & Alonso (2004), Herrero (2010), and Lloret-Segura, Ferreres-Traver, Hérnandez-Baeza, and Tomás-Marco (2014). As it can be appreciated in Table 1. the unifactorial model is not ideal for explaining the malinchismo scale. See Table 2. for reliability (exceeded 0.7 for all four factors, indicating high reliability) and validity of the final 9-item measure (these characteristics are suggested by Asyraf, 2013) Table 3. displays descriptive statistics for the final 9 items and four factors, and Table 4. displays norms of the Malinchismo Scale in the validation sample.
Table 1 Different models of CFA
| Model | Chi-Square | DF | cmin/df | p | TLI | CFI | GFI | AGFI | SMRM | RMSEA | ECVI | p-close |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1422.67 | 659 | 2.16 | .00 | .79 | .80 | .73 | .69 | .07 | .08 | 8.22 | .00 |
| 2 | 1107.09 | 582 | 1.90 | .00 | .84 | .86 | .76 | .73 | .07 | .07 | 6.61 | .00 |
| 3 | 99.82 | 57 | 1.75 | .00 | .95 | .96 | .93 | .89 | .04 | .06 | 0.87 | .15 |
| 4 (final) | 29.98 | 20 | 1.50 | .07 | .97 | .99 | .97 | .93 | .03 | .05 | 0.41 | .45 |
| Unifactorial 5 | 18.53 | 11 | 1.69 | .07 | .97 | .99 | .97 | .93 | .03 | .06 | 0.27 | .33 |
Table 2 Validity and Reliability from the Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Malinchismo Scale
| Dimensions | CR | AVE | MSV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Favoring Foreign Entertainment (Factor 2) | 0.77 | 0.63 | 0.23 |
| Favoring Foreign People (Factor 1) | 0.81 | 0.68 | 0.11 |
| Favoring Foreign Food (Factor 3) | 0.86 | 0.68 | 0.23 |
| Favoring Foreign Products (Factor 4) | 0.83 | 0.71 | 0.14 |
Note: CR = Composite reliability; AVE = Average variance extracted; MSV = Maximum shared variance; and MaxR = Maximum reliability; “Factor” refers to the factor reported in Table 1
Table 3 Descriptive Statistics for Final 9-Item Malinchismo Scale
| Factors and Items | Minimum | Maximum | Mean | SD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Favoring Foreign Entertainment | 2.00 | 10.00 | 6.46 | 2.25 |
| 47. I would rather listen to music from other countries | 1.00 | 5.00 | 3.49 | 1.19 |
| 48. I listen to songs from another country because I consider them better | 1.00 | 5.00 | 2.98 | 1.29 |
| Favoring Foreign People | 2.00 | 10.00 | 3.86 | 1.98 |
| 34. I give preferential treatment to people with foreign heritage | 1.00 | 5.00 | 1.94 | 1.05 |
| 35. I give preferential treatment to people who come from another country | 1.00 | 5.00 | 1.93 | 1.08 |
| Favoring Foreign Food | 2.00 | 10.00 | 4.15 | 1.75 |
| 18. I rather buy food from another country because I consider they have greater quality | 1.00 | 5.00 | 2.01 | 1.00 |
| 19. I believe that food in other countries have better quality | 1.00 | 5.00 | 2.14 | 0.96 |
| Favoring Foreign Products | 3.00 | 15.00 | 9.07 | 2.58 |
| 4. I obtain more satisfaction with a trade mark from another country | 1.00 | 5.00 | 3.03 | 1.05 |
| 6. I believe that a foreign brand is better | 1.00 | 5.00 | 3.07 | 1.05 |
| 13. I consider that foreign products are better | 1.00 | 5.00 | 2.97 | 0.96 |
| Total Malinchismo Scale | 9.00 | 42.00 | 23.54 | 5.85 |
Table 4 Norms for Factor and Total Scores of the Malinchismo Scale in the Validation Sample
| Percentiles | Favoring Foreign Entertainment | Favoring Foreign People | Favoring Foreign Food | Favoring Foreign Products | Total Malinchismo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 11.6 |
| 5 | 3.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 5.0 | 14.0 |
| 10 | 3.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 6.0 | 16.0 |
| 15 | 4.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 6.0 | 17.0 |
| 20 | 4.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 7.0 | 18.0 |
| 25 | 5.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 7.0 | 20.0 |
| 30 | 5.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 8.0 | 20.0 |
| 35 | 6.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 8.0 | 21.0 |
| 40 | 6.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 8.0 | 22.0 |
| 45 | 6.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 9.0 | 22.0 |
| 50 | 6.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 9.0 | 23.0 |
| 55 | 7.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 9.0 | 24.0 |
| 60 | 7.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 10.0 | 25.0 |
| 65 | 7.7 | 4.0 | 5.0 | 10.0 | 25.0 |
| 70 | 8.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 10.0 | 26.0 |
| 75 | 8.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 11.0 | 27.0 |
| 80 | 8.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 11.0 | 28.0 |
| 85 | 9.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 12.0 | 30.0 |
| 90 | 10.0 | 7.0 | 6.0 | 13.0 | 31.0 |
| 95 | 10.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 14.0 | 34.0 |
| 99 | 10.0 | 10.0 | 9.0 | 15.0 | 38.0 |
Convergent and Discriminant Validity
Finally, correlations were computed to assess convergent and discriminant validity with the Interethnic Ingroup Bias Test (See Table 5). As expected, results revealed that malinchismo (Total Score, Favoring Foreign People Subscale, Favoring Foreign Food Subscale Subscale) was significantly and positively correlated with the outgroup preference, and negatively correlated with the ingroup preference (Malinchismo Total Score, Favoring Foreign Entertainment Subscale, Favoring Foreign Food Subscale).
Table 5 Pearson’s Correlations between Malinchismo Scale and the Modified Interethnic Ingroup Bias Test
| Interethnic Ingroup Bias Test Subscale | Favoring Foreign Entertainment | Favoring Foreign People | Favoring Foreign Food | Favoring Foreign Products | Total Malinchismo Scale | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outgroup Preference (“Foreigners”) | Correlation | .073 | .134*** | .089* | .029 | .113** |
| p | .080 | .001 | .036 | .493 | .007 | |
| Ingroup Preference (“Mexicans”) | Correlation | -.090* | -.081+ | -.129** | -.067 | .130** |
| p | .036 | 0.054 | 0.002 | .114 | .002 |
Note. + p <.10 * p <.05 ** p <.01 *** p <.001
Discussion
Malinchismo is a concept embedded in Mexican society referring to privileging the culture, ideas, tastes, and behaviors of another nation/culture over one’s own. The purpose of this study was to connect the concept of malinchismo with relevant theories (post-colonial, social identity, remote acculturation), and validate a new measure of this construct for use among adolescents. Our findings confirm the validity and reliability of our Malinchismo Scale in a sample of adolescents in Mexico (i.e., content, construct, convergent, and discriminant validity), and suggest that it may be useful in other adolescent populations.
Malinchismo can be explained by post-colonial theory (doting gaze of people in post-colonial nations towards neo-colonial capitalist nations/culture: Ashcroft, Griffiths, & Tiffin, 1995), social identity theory (self-selected favoring of the outgroup: see Tajfel & Turner, 1986), and remote acculturation theory (malinchismo is a form of remote assimilation via globalization: Ferguson, 2013). The overall mean on our Malinchismo Scale shows a moderate degree of malinchismo in this adolescent sample overall, as well as a moderate degree of favoring foreign entertainment and foreign products, with a low level of malinchismo in terms of favoring foreign people and foreign food.
We developed and validated our Malinchismo scale using a multi-step process. It is a more comprehensive measure than the only other published scale - a 4-item brief subscale within Vasquez-Parraga and Valencia’s broader measure (2017) - although the contents of our Favoring Foreign Products subscale are quite similar to the prior measure (e.g., focus on consumer preferences). An additional benefit of our measure is that we have validated the Malinchismo Scale for use in the Majority World (i.e., developing countries) whereas the prior scale was validated largely among Latinos in the U.S. having immigrant backgrounds. Malinchismo of individuals not living in the preferred foreign nation/culture may be a truer or stronger form of the phenomenon, and better embody remote assimilation.
Of greatest importance is our Malinchismo Scale’s demonstrated suitability for use among adolescents. Adolescents are expected to be even more likely than adults to experience malinchismo given that adolescence is a sensitive period for remote acculturation; therefore, a valid and reliable measure is an important research tool to advance science in this area.
Limitations
This study had some limitations. First, the instructions to our Malinchismo Scale could have been phrased more simply and clearly. Thus, we recommend that instructions be revised for future use (see Appendix A). Second, our Malinchismo Scale had only modest correlations for convergent and divergent validity; however, the directions of effects and statistical significance were perfectly in line with expectations. Moreover, the modest correlation strength indicates that the Malinchismo Scale is tapping a distinct thought related construct from the one measured by the Interethnic Ingroup Bias Test.
Future Research
The Malinchismo Scale validated in this paper is ripe for use in research investigating this phenomenon in Mexico and other Latin American countries. It would also be a useful addition to remote acculturation studies among youth across regions as a measure of remote assimilation. It will be interesting to study whether and how Malinchismo is associated with a range of developmental, health, lifestyle variables including food consumption, family relations, and career plans. Finally, in the future it may be useful to assess the usefulness of this scale with adult populations.
