To determine whether or not systematic desensitization treatment would produce a significant reduction in negative affect evoked by racial discrimination, 60 Mexican-American college students who scored above average on the Terrell Racial Discrimination Index were selected and assigned randomly to one of three treatment conditions: systematic desensitization (DS), therapist contact (TC), and no-treatment control (NTC). Before undergoing treatment, subjects completed the Background Information Questionnaire (BIQ), and three measures of negative affect: the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (MAACL); the Profile of Mood States (POMS); and the Treatment Rating Scales (TRS). After concluding treatment, subjects completed the three measures of negative affect only. Results were nonsignificant with respect to two of the affect measures—the POMS and the MAACL. However, significant differentia1 treatment effects were observed for the TRS measure. Relative to the TC and NTC conditions, subjects in the DS condition evidenced significantly less anger, depression, and anxiety. No other group differences attained the level of statistical significance (p < .05). Several explanations are offered for the negative findings of the MAACL and POMS. These explanations include the possibility that the measures themselves are insensitive to treatment effects. Nevertheless, due to the significant findings of the TRS, it is concluded that systematic desensitization proves effective in alleviating the negative emotional responses of Mexican Americans to racial discrimination. The implications of these findings are discussed.

"The purpose of this study is to examine the attitude of Mexican Americans toward their Texas Spanish in order to determine if present educational policies are successful in promoting high self-concepts for Mexican-American students..the conclusion of this thesis [is] that a sizable number of Mexican-Americans do not have a positive self-image as speakers of their native language. It is suggested that the rejection of Spanish dialects which are different and distinct from the school standard is a major factor in causing a low self-image on the part of the speaker of a non-standard dialect."-- leaves 1,3.

There is evidence that individual spirituality positively impacts health behaviors and health status, as well as the ability to recover from illness. Among Latinos, spirituality and belief in God may serve as a cultural resource and a source of social support, as well as coping mechanism for disease-related stress. This article describes the results of a qualitative study investigating the role of the lay health worker, or promotora, in serving as a spiritual helper to Mexican Americans with diabetes. Results demonstrated the centrality of spirituality in the daily life of clients. Promotoras utilized the spiritual orientation of their clients to stress personal responsibility for self care in partnership with God, in communal sharing about how spiritual concepts can be applied to one’s life, and by serving as spiritual counselors in times of crisis. Findings have implications for programs serving Mexican American communities.

The problem of this study has been an investigation and comparison of the school dropout rates of Mexican American and Anglo Students and their reasons for leaving school in a large metropolitan school district in Texas. The specific purposes were (1) to ascertain the dropout rates of Mexican American and Anglo students within similar socioeconomic status and to compare these rates; (2) to compare the reasons for dropping out of school given by Mexican American and Anglo students; and (3) to delineate the implications for the school district's instructional program and its operation. Based on an analysis of the findings of this study, the following conclusions were formulated: (1) the school district studied is not meeting the needs of Mexican American students, particularly Mexican American females; (2) it can be expected that Mexican American female students are more likely to drop out than are Anglo females; and (3) Mexican American and Anglo dropouts do not believe that there is anyone on the school staff in whom they can confide their decision to drop out.

Hispanic Migrant Labor in Oregon, 1940-1990, describes the history and conditions of Hispanic farmworkers migrating from the southwestern United States, Mexico, and Latin America after the 1940s. This paper uncovers the history and contribution of a people easily forgotten, but essential to the well-being of the economy and the cultural diversity o f Oregon. Though much has been lost in the comings and the goings o f these people, bits and pieces have been recovered from old newspaper clippings, occasional documents recording the concerns and responses of the federal and state governments, rare articles tucked away in little known periodicals, and interviews.

This dissertation is a study on Mexican-American families focusing on undocumented parents with U.S. born children. I argue that these families represent the most contemporary wave of migrants to enter the United States without documentation since the late 1990s and early 2000s. Research on social inequality situates transmission processes between parents and children, I show how undocumented status can be transmitted and experienced through the creation of a particular social context that encapsulates entire families, including U.S. born children. States, which adopt a legal and institutional framework, aimed at restricting immigrant rights present social and cultural challenges for these parent’s, and their children’s integration experiences. I examine how a process of racialization tied to immigration status translates to what it means to be Mexican American. I observe the ways that social support and intra-group relations across Mexican-American communities are weakened because of the increasing stigmatizing element that is undocumented status. By qualitatively capturing families’ experiences across North Carolina and New York, I highlight the meaning and consequences of legal status and detail how it is hindering this group’s progression overall. How families experience undocumented status varies across the individual, community and state levels. Families are learning to adapt to enforcement measures that merely serve to sustain a durable form of inequality that I argue is creating a new Mexican-American experience.

This study focuses on the wage gap between Mexican American men and Mexican American women, and factors contributing to this disparity. People of Mexican descent make up 67% of the U.S. Hispanic population. Previous research tends to lump Hispanics together, masking differences between groups. Even more, studies considering Hispanic subgroups rarely examine gender differences on income. Using secondary data analysis of the March 2005 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement, this study examines a neglected subgroup, Mexican Americans, and the income gap within this group. The sample size is 3,408 with Mexican American men comprising 55.2% of the sample and Mexican American women 44.8%. This study employs an income determination model composed of three model segments. Theoretical models include an individual component (comprised of variables such as age and education), a structural component (comprised of variables such as occupation and skill-level), and a gender component (comprised of variables such as sex and occupational sex segregation). Univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses are used to examine the independent effects of variables on income. Based on mean annual earnings, analysis shows that net of other factors, an 81% wage gap exists between groups with Mexican American men earning $30,337 and Mexican American women earning $24,548. When examining different elements of the theoretical model, structural model components account for the most variance explained on income between groups. This suggests that gendered discrimination within institutions may affect inequality in pay between men and women. / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. / "May 2006." / Includes bibliographic references (leaves 45-49).

This story cycle focuses on the members of the Ordoñez family of Castroville, California from the time of the first generation’s migration from Mexico in the 1950s to the most recent generation who moves out of the town in the 2000s. “The Ordoñez Pride” shows the entire family as they experience a miracle. Cecilia, the matriarch, receives a belated wedding ring that bursts into flame that doesn’t burn her, but everything else it comes into contact with. The flame also magically sparks hers and her husband’s sex life into overdrive and, late in life, they produce three more children, for a total of nine. Following this framing story, we see snapshots of all the other family members at life-changing moments. In “After the Revolution” we see Ray Ordoñez , the family patriarch, grow from a boy into a man, as he defends his sister from what he perceives to be the American ranch owner practicing the right to first night—a custom that was still practiced in rural Mexico in the twentieth century. Eventually, Ray migrates to California and begins his family, becomes assimilated into American culture, and reluctantly welcomes an American boy—his oldest daughter’s boyfriend—into his household.

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of acculturation on the parent and teacher ratings of non-clinical Mexican American children's behavior, using the BASC Parent Rating Scale-C (PRS-C ) and the Teacher Rating Scale-C (TRS-C ). One hundred twenty-three children of Mexican descent (ages 6-11) attending Texas public schools were rated by their parents and teachers. Parent acculturation level was measured using the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans-II. Parents were assigned to High, Medium or Low acculturation groups based on a combination of linear acculturation levels (Part 1) and obtained typologies (Part 2). Parent acculturation level was then assigned to TRS-C data creating matched-rater pairs (PRS-C and TRS-C of same child) for use in this study. Internal consistency reliabilities for the Total Mexican American sample's Teacher Rating Scale-C (TRS-C) were more similar to the published BASC general norms than the Total Mexican American sample's Parent Rating Scale-C (PRS-C ) on six of the nine clinical scales investigated and on all three of the shared adaptive scales. The most striking internal consistency result emerged when the sample was subdivided by acculturation, the High acculturation TRS-C Conduct Problems scale showed no cohesion of items for this sample (.00). Comparison of the Total, High, Medium, and Low groups' obtained distributions on each of the 16 selected scales of the PRS-C and TRS-C to the published BASC general norms revealed: 1) six significant differences of potential clinical relevance on the PRS-C scales, and 2) thirteen significant differences of potential clinical relevance on the TRS-C scales. Both parents and teachers rated the children as demonstrating less maladaptive symptoms on the Aggression, Depression, Hyperactivity, and Behavioral Symptom Index. Only parents reported lower Adaptability and Adaptive Skills scores. And only teachers of the High acculturation group reported higher Adaptability scores. No systematic influence of acculturation was present among any of the 16 selected scales. However, the parents and teachers of the High acculturation subgroup did have more moderate correlations than the Medium and Low groups combined.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 338-350). Also available on the Internet.