Identification with Mexican family values and authoritarianism in Mexican-Americans.

Abstract

In this study it was hypothesized that Mexican-American college students would score higher than Anglo-Americans on a family attitude (F) scale that reflected the values of the Mexican family. It was also predicted that the Mexican-Americans would score higher on the F scale because their family milieu is very much like that of the high authoritarians. The sample subjects were 70 Anglo-Americans not belonging to any identifiable cultural or racial minority group ranging in age from 18 to 24. They were all middle-class Catholic college students of an equal number of males and females. The California F scale consisting of 32 items was administered to all subjects. The results indicate that the Mexican-American subjects made significantly higher scores than the Anglo-Americans on both the F scale and the Mexican Family Attitude Scales. The Mexican-American females made higher scores on both scales than did any of the other 3 culture-sex subgroups. It is evident that the positive relationship between autocratic family ideology and authoritarianism found among high authoritarian Anglo-Americans is also evident in a cultural minority group. The results indicate that young middle-class Mexican Americans adhere to standards of conformity and authoritarian submission indicating a need to maintain the status quo and certainly to refrain from opposing it. Although this study employed quantitative techniques which are usually associated with the research of psychologists it confirmed the findings of anthropologists who had utilized different methods. Comparison of the family attitude pattern of the Mexican Americans with that of Mexicans and Puerto Ricans reveals that the Mexican American value system shows signs of Americanization in the form of a decrease in the authority of the male. The Mexican family values on which the Mexican Americans expressed more agreement than disagreement were those of conformity strict child rearing and authoritarian submission.