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The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and an acculturation inventory consisting of 15 semantic differential and sociocultural items were administered to Chicano college students. Factor analysis produced a four-dimensional measure of acculturation. The multivariate relationships between the multidimensional measure of acculturation and MMPI validity and clinical scales were investigated by means of canonical correlational analysis. Two of the canonical correlations were significant. Differences in language use, generation and citizenship of head of household (Nationality-Language factor) were related to differences on L, Hs, and MF scales, with less acculturated subjects scoring higher on L and Hs scales and lower on the MF scale. Differences in socioeconomic status (SES factor) and attitudes toward the concept "male" (Male-Potency factor) were related to differences on L, K, and Pd scales, with less acculturated students scoring lower on L and K, and higher on Pd. Implications for future cross-cultural research and the difficulties in the psychological assessment of the heterogeneous Chicano population are discussed.

MMPI scores of black, Mexican-American, and white male offenders were compared in order to investigate whether cultural and/or socioeconomomic factors affect this personality inventory. Comparisons were performed on unmatched and matched (education and occupation) groups that utilized all profiles or valid ones only and examined both trait (individual scales) and type (Goldberg indices) differences. Black-white differences on the MA, K, and HY scales appeared to reflect cultural factors, while differences on MF and alcoholism seemed to be accounted for by socieconomic differences among the groups. Cultural factors seemed to be related to differences between Mexican-Americans and white on the L,K,and overcontrolled hostility scales, while socioeconomic factors appeared to explain differences on the Hs scale. Type differences were not apparent except that Mexican-Americans were classified more often as psychiatric, while whites and blacks scored well into the sociopathic range.

Prevalence of inhalant, marijuana, and alcohol abuse was studied in a sample of 457 male and female Mexican-American children and adolescents between the ages of 9 and 17 years. Subjects interviewed resided in four housing projects located in East Los Angeles. All interviews were conducted by adolescents who resided in the same housing projects. Results indicated that compared to a national sample, Mexican-American adolescents were at least 14 times more likely to be currently abusing inhalants. The prevalence rate of marijuana was double the national rate, but the prevalence of alcohol was equal to that found nationally. Reasons for elevated substance abuse rates are explored.

The purpose of this study was to establish an empirical base for the comprehensive study of sexual preferences and practices among Mexican Americans. The sample consisted of 165 Mexican-American (86 male, 79 female) and 99 Anglo (47 male, 52 female) undergraduates. The instrument used was the Sexual Knowledge and Attitude Test (SKAT; Lief & Reed, 1972). The first section of the SKAT consists of four attitudes subscales dealing with autoeroticism, abortion, heterosexual relations, and sexual myths. The second section includes 50 true-false items testing knowledge of the biological, psychological, and social facts of human sexuality. The last section focuses on the respondent's sexual value system and practices. The design was a 2 (ethnicity) X 2 (gender) X 4 (religion) X 3 (socioeconomic status) incomplete factorial, in which the effect of interest was ethnicity. This effect was assessed controlling for subjects' age, gender, religious preference, and socioeconomic status. The dependent variables were subjects' sexual attitudes, knowledge, sexual value system, and sexual practices. Tests of significance were undertaken separately for each set of dependent variables, with a correspondingly reduced alpha level. Significant differences were obtained between Mexican Americans and Anglos, in attitudes, knowledge, value system, and practices, in clear support of the hypotheses.