Woman Abuse, Assimilation, and Self-Concept in a Rural Mexican American Community

Abstract

This study proposed to describe the effect of assimilation on self-concept and abuse in a rural, minority population of Mexican American women. Ethnic language translations were developed to enable investigation with a rural, Spanish-speaking, Mexican American population. Reassessment of reliability and validity of both English and Spanish translations of instrumentation for a rural population was performed. Data were collected through convenience sampling from both rural battered women's shelters and rural community service centers. Significant differences were found between groups of abused (n = 85) versus non-abused (n = 84) women on dimensions of self-concept. Assimilation variables found to be significantly correlated with self-concept for abused and non-abused Mexican American women included language, attitudes toward traditionalfamily structure, and values. Significant differences werefound between abused and non-abused Mexican American women in attitudes toward traditional family structure and sex-role identification.