Development and Preliminary Validation of Multidimensional Acculturative Stress Scale for Pakistani Immigrants in Toronto, Canada

The multidimensional acculturative stress scale (MASS) was developed to capture the unique stressors in different life domains faced by Pakistani adult immigrants (214) residing in Canada. Exploratory factor analysis of 32-item pool yielded a 24-item measure with five distinct factors including discrimination, threat to ethnic identity, and lack of opportunities for occupational and financial mobility, homesickness and language barrier. The Cronbach's alpha and internal consistency estimates provided reliability evidence for the total MASS and its five subscales. Further, concurrent validity estimates using the General health Questionnaire-12 (Goldberg & Williams, 1988) and the Psychological Well-being Questionnaire (Ryff & Singer, 1996) also supported the use and continued development of the MASS.