Cultural Affiliation and Adjustment among Male Mexican-American College Students

Abstract

Biculturally affiliated male Mexican-American students were expected to show better adjustment to the college environment than mono-culturally affiliated students. On the Coping Response Inventory 13 subjects classified as bicultural on the Biculturalism Inventory reported less stress and less interference from stress in the interpersonal area than 10 monocultural subjects, with no differences in the familial or academic areas, or in cumulative grade point average. Monocultural students with a primary Chicano affiliation reported more interference from stress in the interpersonal area than bicultural students and had a higher grade-point average than monocultural students with a primary Anglo-American affiliation. Results were discussed in terms of DeVos' 1980 model of adaption by an ethnic minority.