Bárbara VanOss Marín

This article reports the development of a short (12-item) acculturation scale for Hispanics. Separate factor analyses of the responses of 363 Hispanics and 228 non-Hispanic whites produced three factors: "Language Use," "Media," and "Ethnic Social Relations." The 12-item scale (explaining 67.6% of the variance for Hispanics) correlated highly with the following validation criteria: respondents' generation, length of residence in the U.S., age at arrival, ethnic self-identification, and with an acculturation index. The first factor consists of only five items and explains 54.5% of the variance while maintaining strong correlations with the various criteria. The validity and reliability coefficients for this new short scale are comparable to those obtained for other published scales. Separate validations for Mexican Americans and Central Americans showed similar results.

Hispanics Who are They? Issues in Identifying Hispanics Enhancing Research Participation Development and Adaptation of Instruments Translation of Data Collection Instruments Potential Problems in Interpreting Data

This investigation studied the effects of acculturation on attitudinal familism in 452 Hispanics compared to 227 white nonHispanics. Despite differences in the national origin of Hispanics, Mexican-, Central -and Cuban-Americans reported similar attitudes toward the family indicating that familism is a core characteristic in the Hispanic culture. Three basic dimensions of familism were found: Familial obligations, perceived support from the family and family as referents. The high level of perceived family support, invariable despite changes in acculturation, is the most essential dimension of Hispanic familism. Familial obligations and the perception of the family as referents appear to diminish with the level of acculturation, but the perception of family support doesn't change. Although these two dimensions of familism decrease concurrently with the level of acculturation, the attitudes of persons with high levels of acculturation are more familistic than those of white nonHispanics.

OBJECTIVES: This study assessed the relation between experiences of social discrimination (homophobia, racism, and financial hardship) and symptoms of psychologic distress (anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation) among self-identified gay and bisexual Latino men in the United States. METHODS: Data were collected from a probability sample of 912 men (self-identified as both Latino and nonheterosexual) recruited from the venues and public social spaces identified as both Latino and gay in the cities of Miami, Los Angeles, and New York. RESULTS: The study showed high prevalence rates of psychologic symptoms of distress in the population of gay Latino men during the 6 months before the interview, including suicidal ideation (17% prevalence), anxiety (44%), and depressed mood (80%). In both univariate and multivariate analyses, experiences of social discrimination were strong predictors of psychologic symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: The mental health difficulties experienced by many gay and bisexual Latino men in the United States are directly related to a social context of oppression that leads to social alienation, low self-esteem, and symptoms of psychologic distress.

Secondary analyses were carried out with four large data sets that included responses by Hispanics (N = 1,908) and by non-Hispanic Whites (N = 14,425). Results are fairly consistent in showing that Hispanics prefer extreme responses to a greater extent than non-Hispanic Whites. In general, Hispanics prefer to agree with a given item more than non-Hispanic Whites. Two significant variables seem to affect the rate at which these response styles are chosen. First, the level of acculturation among Hispanics affects the level of extreme and acquiescent responses so that as Hispanics acculturate they tend to choose these types of response less frequently. The less educated respondents (less than 12 years of formal education) tend to make more extreme choices than the more highly educated (those with at least a secondary education). Gender does not affect these response sets in a consistent fashion.