MEXICAN-AMERICAN AND ANGLO-AMERICAN DIFFERENCES ON THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SCREENING INVENTORY

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.