Cultural Values in Latin and North American Cities

Abstract

This study of adolescents in San Juan, Puerto Rico, replicated an investigation of the cultural values, as measured by the Uses Tests, of 13-and 16-year old upper-lower and upper-middle class adolescents in Buenos Aires and Chicago. The scoring categories provide a highly reliable system for classifying the adolescents' descriptions of uses for the 50 common objects listed in the instrument. The frequencies of the scoring categories instrumental, benevolent, malevolent, hedonistic, esthetic, religious, and status were analyzed by sex, age, and social class for San Juan in comparison to the two original samples. Implications are drawn from the pattern of frequencies of San Juan responses as compared to the typically Latin "passive" pattern in Buenos Aires and the typically North American "active" pattern in Chicago.