Mexican American Cultural Values Scale: Considerations for college students
4 affiliations
- 1Kinder Institute for Urban Research, Rice University, Houston, Texas, United Sates of America
- 2Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, United States of America
- 3Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States of America
- 4Department of Clinical Psychoogy, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States of America
Abstract
The Mexican American Cultural Values Scale is among the most widely utilized scales to examine Latinx cultural values. Originally conceptualized to assess Mexican American values among adolescent Mexican Americans and their caregivers, the MACVS continues to be relied on for examining Latinx college student outcomes, leading to questions over utilization of the MACVS for this sample. This psychometric study used extant data from undergraduates enrolled in Hispanic-serving institutions (n = 495; 341 Mexican American) to test the internal consistency and MACVS model fit capturing Mexican American Traditional Values (Familism-Obligation, Familism-Obligations, Familism-Referent, Respect, Religion, and Traditional Gender Roles) and Mainstream Values (Material Success, Independence & Self-Reliance, and Competition & Personal Achievement). Confirmatory factor analyses of the higher-order correlated model and alternative models indicated misfit for Mexican American college students, raising concerns regarding its use for this population: X2 (1176) = 3951.72, CFI = .73, TLI = .71, RMSEA = 0.08, SRMR = 0.18. Exploratory analyses intended to broaden the MACVS to non-Mexican American students (n = 154) also indicated misfit and inadequate configural measurement invariance. Together, these findings underscore an emergent need to closely evaluate use of the MACVS beyond intended samples and acknowledge context-dependent influences on cultural values for Mexican American college students.
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BibTeX
@article{martinez2026mexican,
title = {{Mexican American Cultural Values Scale: Considerations for college students}},
author = {Anjelica Martinez and Ashley Bautista and Alejandro L. Vázquez and German Cadenas and Amanda Venta},
journal = {PLOS One},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0354954},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0354954},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Mexican American Cultural Values Scale: Considerations for college students
AU - Anjelica Martinez
AU - Ashley Bautista
AU - Alejandro L. Vázquez
AU - German Cadenas
AU - Amanda Venta
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
JO - PLOS One
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0354954
UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0354954
AB - The Mexican American Cultural Values Scale is among the most widely utilized scales to examine Latinx cultural values. Originally conceptualized to assess Mexican American values among adolescent Mexican Americans and their caregivers, the MACVS continues to be relied on for examining Latinx college student outcomes, leading to questions over utilization of the MACVS for this sample. This psychometric study used extant data from undergraduates enrolled in Hispanic-serving institutions (n = 495; 341 Mexican American) to test the internal consistency and MACVS model fit capturing Mexican American Traditional Values (Familism-Obligation, Familism-Obligations, Familism-Referent, Respect, Religion, and Traditional Gender Roles) and Mainstream Values (Material Success, Independence & Self-Reliance, and Competition & Personal Achievement). Confirmatory factor analyses of the higher-order correlated model and alternative models indicated misfit for Mexican American college students, raising concerns regarding its use for this population: X2 (1176) = 3951.72, CFI = .73, TLI = .71, RMSEA = 0.08, SRMR = 0.18. Exploratory analyses intended to broaden the MACVS to non-Mexican American students (n = 154) also indicated misfit and inadequate configural measurement invariance. Together, these findings underscore an emergent need to closely evaluate use of the MACVS beyond intended samples and acknowledge context-dependent influences on cultural values for Mexican American college students.
SN - 1932-6203
ER -