Comparability of Self-Reported Hispanic Ethnicity and Spanish Surname Coding

Abstract

Few empirical analyses have assessed the concordance between self-reported Hispanic ethnicity and ethnicity obtained from Spanish surname coding programs. Using data from 4,918 Hispanic and non-Hispanic individuals, aged 12-74, who participated in cross-sectional surveys conducted in Northern California during 1979-1980 and 1989-1990, The authors e-xamined agreement between self-reported and surname-coded ethnicity. Of self-reportedHispanics, 84. 1% were coded as Spanish surnamed and 77.9% ofthose identified by the surnameprogram were self-reportedHispanics. Misclassification was higher for English-speaking groups than for Spanish-speaking groups, and higher for females than for males. English-speaking married and previously married women showed the highest discordance between self-reported ethnicity and surname coding. Results suggest that Spanish surname programs can be a valuable tool for analyzing data sets with inadequate ethnic identifiers, especially in samples having a high proportion of Spanish-speaking respondents.