C. Negy et Dj. Woods, MEXICAN-AMERICAN AND ANGLO-AMERICAN DIFFERENCES ON THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SCREENING INVENTORY, Journal of personality assessment, 60(3), 1993, pp. 543-553
This study investigated differences between Mexican- and Anglo-America
n college students on the Psychological Screening Inventory (PSI; Lany
on, 1970, 1973)-a brief personality instrument designed to detect pers
ons who might benefit from more extensive evaluations in mental health
settings. Further, this study controlled for the Mexican Americans' a
cculturation level, age, and socioeconomic status (SES), as these vari
ables have routinely been shown to covary with other psychosocial vari
ables. From data on 107 Mexican-American and 105 Anglo-American colleg
e students, we found that Mexican-American subjects had higher PSI sco
res on the Alienation and Defensiveness subscales and lower scores on
the Social Nonconformity and Expression subscales than did Anglo-Ameri
can subjects. With acculturation covaried, however, these differences
were no longer statistically significant. With age and SES covaried, t
he two ethnic groups differed on Alienation, Expression, and Defensive
ness, suggesting that Mexican Americans' performance on the PSI varies
as a function of acculturation, age, and SES. Implications of these f
indings are discussed.