A study of acculturation in Mexican American junior high students

Includes bibliographical references (pages 100-101)Purpose The purpose of the study was to answer two questions regarding Junior High School Mexican American students. 1) Is there a gradual increase in the acceptance of Anglo values depending on the amount of time they have been in the United States? 2) What other factors might effect the degree of acceptance or rejection of Anglo values coupled with time in the United States? Some factors might be: a. The subjects' sex b. The subjects??? family work situation. c. The subjects' birthplace -- rural or urban. d. The subjects' neighborhood of residence in Santa Monica -- predominantly Mexican, Anglo, Black or Mixed.\ud The writer undertook the research study in order to better understand the Mexican American students in her classes. The researcher also hoped that she would be able to relate better to the students through learning more\ud about cultural value differences.\ud Procedure The design of the research was a survey beginning with a review of the literature to determine any conflicts in Anglo and Mexican cultural values. Later, a preliminary questionnaire, the Theodore Graves Tri-Ethnic Acculturation Scale (Scale V) and a follow-up questionnaire were administered to seventy students who were divided into four groups dependent on the time they had been in the United States. After all data was collected appropriate statistical techniques were employed to analyze and interpret the data.\ud Findings The major conflicts between Anglo and Mexican cultural values, as found in the literature were: 1) doing versus being, 2) non-idealization of work, 3) a fatalistic attitude about the individual's control over life, 4) the families central importance, 5) the relative unimportance of education and 6) differing time orientations.\ud The major findings of the statistical analyses of the data were: 1) Most subjects were at the same level of acculturation based on an item-by-item analysis of mean responses to scale items. 2) In calculating ???t??? ratios on the time variable the time group born in the United States was at an equal level of acculturation when compared\ud to the other three. 3) There were few significant differences between all groups in regard to the other variables. (See more in text