We compare the methods for estimating the masses of young, embedded st
ars developed by Comeron et al. (1993) and by Strom et al. (1995) and
show them to be in good agreement. Spectra in the 2 mu m region of six
low-mass objects are also in agreement with the mass estimates using
these methods. The spectrum of a brown dwarf candidate can be used to
place an upper limit on its mass of 60% of the minimum required for hy
drogen burning. This limit is independent of the photometric analysis,
which we update in this paper to make use of new calculations of brow
n dwarf evolution. This new analysis indicates a mass for this object
of roughly 40% of the minimum hydrogen-burning mass, supporting the po
ssibility that it is a young brown dwarf. The initial mass functions (
IMFs) obtained for low-mass stars in the p Ophiuchi cloud cores by Com
eron et al. (1993) and by Strom et al. (1995) also agree well. The dat
a have been combined to increase the statistical weight of the determi
nation of the IMF. The IMF between 0.03 and 1 M. can be fitted satisfa
ctorily by a power law with index in linear mass units of similar to -
1.1, or in logarithmic mass units of similar to -0.1.