Cross-Cultural Standardization of TEMAS in Three Hispanic Subcultures

Abstract

Mental health clinical services research has stressed the urgency of developing culture-sensitive instruments for psychological assessment and psychodiagnosis of ethnic, racial, and linguistic minority children. The TEMAS (Tell-Me-A-Story) test is an apperception test depicting Hispanic and Black characters (minority version) or White characters (nonminority version) interacting in urban settings and expressing culturally oriented themes, and is scored for cognitive, affective, and personality functioning. This study compared the normative profiles, the reliability, and the criterion-related validity of TEMAS with school and clinical children from three different Hispanic cultures: Puerto Ricans in New York City, natives of SanJuan, PuertoRico, andSouthAmericans inBuenos Aires, Argentina. Children in New York and Puerto Rico were administered 23 minority TEMAS cards, the Spielberger Trait-Anxiety Scale for Children, and the Piers-Harris Self ConceptScale. Argentinean children were administered 10 TEMAS cards, the nonminority short form, and the Piers-Harris scale. Results of the study support the use of TEMAS with examinees in the three cultures, but also suggest that some TEMAS cards do not pull the designatedpersonality functions as consistently with native Puerto Rican andArgentinean children. The findings point to the need to revise selected TEMAS cards to be culture specific.