Attitudes Toward Chicanos by Students in Mexican American Studies Classes: A Research Note

Abstract

Students attending Mexican American Studies (MAS) classes at a California State University were asked to participate in a study that assessed attitude toward Chicanos. The instrument used in this study was one version of the Scale for the Measurement of Attitude toward Chicanos developed by Carranza (1977). The scale consists of 20 items about Chicanos with scale values ranging from unfavorable (1.4) to favorable (9.8). The terms Chicano and Mexican American were treated as virtually synonymous for the purposes of this study. The study sought to investigate attitudes toward Chicanos by Chicanos and non-Chicanos taking classes in the university 's MexicanAmerican Studies program. Results indicated that a favorable attitude toward Chicanos exists across gender, age group, and ethnic group identification. Within the favorable dimension, the non-Hispanic White had the least favorable attitude (7.6) toward Chicanos while the Asian/Pacific Islander group had the most favorable attitude (8.8) toward Chicanos. Chicanos who comprised half of the sample had a median score of 8.1. Self-rating medians underestimated favorable attitude toward Chicanos for all categories except the Chicano and non-Hispanic White ethnic categories. Frequency of responses reveals that while the majority (52%) were recorded in the above neutralposition (> 6.0), 47% of the responses fell below the neutral scale value.