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Parent and teacher ratings of Mexican American children’s behavior on the BAS : influence of acculturation on a Texas sample

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.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/3057
Date12 April 2006
CreatorsHernandez, Melissa Escobedo
ContributorsPalmer, Douglas J, Parker, Richard I
PublisherTexas A&M University
Source SetsTexas A and M University
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeBook, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text
Format496488 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital

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