Browsing by Subject "Mexican Americans"
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Item A case study of self efficacy and parental involvement among Hispanic parents of children with disabilities(Texas Tech University, 2003-12) Davis, Rebecca Sue LewisThe literature denotes a unique situation in which parents are assumed to be the recipients of knowledge regarding their children rather than the disseminators of information. Two distinct groups are represented in this case study of parents of children with disabilities: (1) parents from culturally and linguistically diverse homes; and (2) educators from the local education agency. Although legally mandated, parents and school representatives have struggled with the process of translating Congressional authorization into actuality. Current effect of this reversal of roles has resulted in unbalanced power relationships among potential collaborators and has contributed to low parental self efficacy (Bandura, 1977). This research is an in-depth exploration of the failure of both parents and educators to achieve full compliance with the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) of 1997. The compelling issue guiding this qualitative case study was derived from Bandura's (1977) social- cognitive-learning perspective: how does parental self-efificacy influence minority parent involvement in the education of elementary school children with disabilities? Research considered five underlying questions: (1) how well do parents understand the Individuals with Education Disabilities Act (1997); (2) how well do parents understand the evaluation and placement process; (3) how well do parents understand the Individualized Education Program; (4) what do parents contribute to the development and implementation of the Individualized Education Program; and (5) how do parental perceptions of school practices impact parental involvement?Item A comparative study of learning styles of Hispanic and Anglo chemistry students(Texas Tech University, 1995-08) Flores-Feist, M. CeliaThe purpose of this study was to compare the learning styles of Hispanic and Anglo students enrolled in chemistry. Eight hypotheses were tested using routines available in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSSX).Item Acculturative Self-Efficacy: A New View on the Acculturation Process for Individuals of Mexican Descent(2011-08) Rodriguez, Sofia; Hardin, Erin E.; Borrego, Joaquin P.; Hendrick, Susan S.; Richards, StevenAcculturation research is increasingly focusing on how Mexicans and Mexican Americans culturally adapt when coming into contact with a dominant culture. Understanding acculturation is important because immigrants who are more acculturated to U.S. culture experience better adjustment, more utilization of mental health services, and more success while living in the United States (Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health, 2001). In spite of an upward trend of research on acculturation and adaptation for individuals of Mexican descent, the literature continues to suggest that there is not “a measure that adequately samples the major behavioral and attitudinal domains related to acculturative change” (Zane & Mak, 2002, p. 54). Until recently, research had not investigated how a Mexican American’s self-efficacy (an individual’s perception of his or her confidence to complete a task; Bandura, 1997) towards acculturation plays a role in successful adjustment to the dominant culture. A pilot study of a new acculturation scale, the Acculturative Self-Efficacy Scale (Rodriguez-Siuts & Hardin, 2008), revealed confidence or self-efficacy (e.g., in speaking English or making European American friends) is indeed an important factor to consider when examining successful cultural adjustment for Mexican Americans living in the United States. The present study was designed to examine a revised Acculturative Self- Efficacy Scale (ASES) that addresses the limitations and concerns found in the pilot study. The results indicated that ASES has good psychometric properties, including good reliability and validity. Additionally, the ASES predicted some aspects of psychological and sociocultural adaptation above and beyond behavioral acculturation, as measured by the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans-II (ARSMA-II).Item An evaluation of two counselor preparation models and their impact upon the activities and perceptions of Chicano counselors.(Texas Tech University, 1975-05) Rinaldi, John R.The specific purpose of this study was to compare the attitudes, activities, and supervisors' and self ratings of Chicano counselors trained in E.P.D.A. sponsored counselor training programs and Chicano counselors trained in Non-E.P.D.A. sponsored counselor training programs and determine whether any differences existed between the two groups trained under two different models. The results of the study could lead to a general re-evaluation of how counselors are prepared and the modification of counselor preparation programs.Item An exemplary multicultural unit of art instruction for use in elementary education curricula designed to help Mexican-American students develop more positive attitudes toward different racial, ethnic, cultural, and religious groups(Texas Tech University, 1995-08) Silveira, Carlos ANot availableItem The campus climate of a border HSI : redefining Latino student success(2011-05) Cortez, Laura Jean; Sáenz, Victor B.; Vincent, Gregory J.; Reddick, Richard J.; Rodriguez, Victoria E.; Yamamura, Erica K.The number of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) is on the rise. Research suggests that institutions designated as HSIs graduate over fifty percent of Latinos enrolled in college (Santiago, 2006). However, few studies have examined the campus climate of HSIs and how such climate may influence the degree attainment of first-generation, Mexican American students. Considering the instrumental role HSIs have had in advancing the number of Latinos in postsecondary education, this study investigates the campus climate of an HSI along the U.S.-Mexico Border. By utilizing the theoretical frameworks of funds of knowledge (Moll, Amanti, Neff & Gonzalez, 1992) and organizational habitus (McDonough, 1997) this qualitative study involved first-generation, Mexican American students, faculty, and administrators from the University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA). Data collection methods included: student focus groups, individual interviews, observations, reflective notes and a review of relevant documents. Instrumentation used for this study incorporated a student questionnaire as well as pre-established interview questions. Findings revealed students’ perceptions of a Border HSIs, the experiences they describe as helpful in allowing them to obtain a degree; and the institutional characteristics faculty and administrators found critical in allowing first-generation, Mexican American students to persist. This study builds upon a pilot conducted in 2009-2010, that assessed Latino students’ perceptions of HSIs. The goal of this study is 1) to contribute to the literature on first-generation, Mexican American student success and 2) to further enrich our knowledge about the campus climate of Border HSIs and their role in degree attainment of Latinos.Item Cognitive and affective responses by West Texas Hispanics/Latinos to agricultural news: a comparison of four English and Spanish presentation media(Texas Tech University, 2003-12) Davis, Chad S.As media channels began to develop and evolve in the 20^ century, scholars began inquiry into cognitive and affective associations of mass media. Observations directly associated media with attitudes and behavior. Two cases were the 1938 Orson Welles broadcast of War of the Worlds and the 1940s World War II propaganda films. Media effects research resulted from such cases. Agriculturists often seek ways to convey the importance of agriculture. Most professionals in agricultural education develop and research the effects of agricultural education programming with youth and adult populations. Agricultural communicators often seek descriptive information pertaining to perceptions of agriculture and its diverse issue base. This dissertation, which uses the agenda-setting theory, is the first of its kind to compare mass media channels containing agricultural content. Furthermore, this dissertation is the first to focus on the Hispanic/Latino population and the English and Spanish language as it pertains to outcomes associated with mass media channels containing agricultural content. This study used an experimental posttest-only control-group design to compare four English and Spanish presentation media: newspaper print, electronic text, video news release, and radio news release. Participants were bilingual Hispanic/Latino attendees of the Texas Tech Raiders Rojos Back to School Fiesta (n=144). The participants were randomly assigned to one of eight treatment groups and a control group. The dependent measure included aided recall unaided recall, and issue salience. Results indicate significant differences in aided recall between English newspaper print and English electronic text, Spanish newspaper print, and Spanish electronic text. A significant difference also occurred between English video news release and Spanish electronic text. Results indicated a strong correlation between aided and unaided recall. No significant differences existed between agricultural issue salience and media channel. Authors suggest replication in Hispanic populations and other ethnic groups.Item Constituting citizens 'Mexican migrants' and the discourses and practices of United States citizenship(2005) Plascencia, Luis F. B.; Menchaca, MarthaThis dissertation examines the discourses and practices of citizenship in the United States through an analysis of interviews carried out with a group of Mexican migrants who are in the process of acquiring, or have recently acquired, U.S. citizenship, participation and observations at citizenship promotion events and naturalization ceremonies, and interviews of individuals promoting citizenship. The discourses of citizenship are contextualized through an examination of statutes, historical material, legal cases, and other documents. Theoretically, the dissertation addresses the undertheorized notion that power not only asserts a disciplining and coercive force upon individuals, but that, following Foucault, it has a ‘productive’ force, it produces subjectivities. It is argued that the effectiveness of the discursive formation of citizenship depends on its making sense to individuals, and its ability to hold out the possibility of meeting the needs and desires of individuals. Previous work has not adequately examined the broader process encompassing the promotion of citizenship, assistance with the application, citizenship classes, and naturalization ceremonies. The social science literature on citizenship has not paid sufficient attention to affects such as fidelity in the constitution of citizens, specifically “good citizens.” Fidelity is demanded by state citizenship and it overlaps with other discourses that are part of the lived experience of individuals. The discourses and practices of citizenship overlap with schooling, with graduation ceremonies, and with weddings. All of these practices, and the discourses involved, invoke fidelity: fidelity to the state and its institutions, fidelity to one’s school, and fidelity to one’s marriage partner. In sum, the attributes of a “good citizen,” and our desire to possess the positively-defined elements, contribute to the functioning of the state, the military, the workplace, the school, and the family; and to the production of governable subjects. The dissertation also discusses the overlooked everyday uses of the notion of “citizen,” and the possibility of disenchantment with the acquisition of juridical citizenship; and offers a critique of critics who are concerned with the “devaluing of citizenship” and the lack of “sanctity” in the contemporary taking of the citizenship Oath.Item Depressive symptoms, behavioral health risk factors, and physical illness among older Mexican Americans(2010-12) Talavera-Garza, Liza; Holahan, Charles J.; Bigler, Rebecca S.; Iscoe, Ira; Ramirez, Manuel; Warner, David C.This study utilized data from the Hispanic Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly (H-EPESE) at two different time points, seven years apart, to examine the relationship between physical illness and depressive symptoms in elderly Mexican Americans. The two physical illnesses studied are coronary artery disease and type II diabetes due to their high prevalence among Mexican Americans. The relationship between physical illness and depressive symptoms is examined longitudinally and prospectively, in both directions. In addition, the relationship between depressive symptoms and three behavioral health risk factors: alcohol use, cigarette smoking, and physical inactivity, at baseline is examined. The roles of gender, acculturation, nativity, and locus of control are examined as moderators of the key relationships studied. Additionally, self-rated health at baseline is examined as a predictor of physical illness and mortality at follow-up.Item The Effects of Acculturation on the Mexican-American Dementia Caregiver Experience(2005-12-19) Dominguez, Gabriel Angel; Silver, CherylThere is a paucity of research to understand the experience of the Mexican-American caregiver of family members with dementia. The proposed study will investigate how acculturation affects the caregiver experience in the Mexican-American culture. Correlations between caregiver burden, problem behaviors, and positive aspects of caregiving will be computed and compared between participants at two acculturation levels. More caregiver burden and more positive aspects of caregiving are hypothesized to exist in the group with low acculturation, although the correlations between these two variables are expected to be similar in the acculturation groups. These results would imply that acculturation affects Mexican-American caregivers in both positive and negative ways.Item Ethnic identity development and social competence of Mexican-American children(Texas Tech University, 2000-05) Villa, Laura CeciliaThe primary purpose of this study was to explore the ethnic identity of Mexican-American children. The investigation looked at the ethnic identity in terms of development by assessing five components of ethnic identity (ethnic self-identification, ethnic constancy, ethnic knowledge, ethnic feelings and preferences, and use of ethnic role behaviors)in eight-year-old children. The present study also explored the role the broader social ecology in the development of ethnic identity by comparing the ethnic identity of children from two towns, Lubbock and El Paso, Texas. Individual familial predictors of ethnic identity (parental language acculturation, social acculturation, education and employment) were also assessed. In addition, the present study explored the implications of having a high or a low ethnic identity by looking at the relationship between ethnic identity and social competence in children from the two towns. Results indicate that Mexican-American children have started forming an ethnic identity at the age of eight years. In comparison, children from Lubbock supersede the children from El Paso in most of the ethnic identity components. Tovm seemed to be the most important predictor of ethnic identity, followed by mother's education, mother's employment, mother's use of the Spanish language, and the number of Mexican objects displayed in the home. Finally, findings demonstrate that higher ethnic identity leads to better social skills and less behavior problems within the sample. Differences in ethnic identity between the children in the two towns may be attributed to the different majority/minority status Mexican-American children experience. For Lubbock children, ethnicity may be a more sahent and important element of identity than for El Paso children because of their minority status.Item "The face of god has changed" : Tejana cultural production and the politics of spirituality in the borderlands(2010-08) Sendejo, Brenda Lee; Flores, Richard R.; Menchaca, Martha; Strong, Pauline; Martinez, Anne M.; Zamora, EmilioThis ethnography of spirituality explores the production of cultural practices and beliefs among a group of Texas Mexican women (Tejanas) of the post-World War II generation. These women have been involved with various social justice initiatives since the 1960s and 1970s in Texas, such as the Chicana feminist and Chicano civil rights movements. This study explains how race, ethnicity, and gender intersect and interact in these women’s geographic and spiritual borderlands to produce a pattern of change in the ways they choose to engage with religion, particularly Catholicism. While the Tejana spiritual productions examined here are in many ways distinct from the religious practices of these women’s Catholic upbringings, they also recall religious rituals and traditions from their imagined, constructed, and engaged pasts. Some women have left Catholicism for other forms of spiritual fulfillment, including earth-based, indigenous, and/or Eastern religious practices, while others have remained Catholic-identified, yet altered how they practice Catholicism. A common theme in the narratives is that of spiritual agency – the conscious decision women make to reconfigure their spiritual practices and beliefs. I explore the meaning of such acts and what they indicate about the construction of spiritual and religious identities in the borderlands. I argue that because gender structures Tejana religious experiences to such a wide extent, a critical gender analysis of religious and spiritual practices will provide deeper insight into the making of Texas Mexican culture and social relations. I examine the women’s life experiences through a methodological framework I call mujerista ethnography, which draws on oral history and research methods employed by feminist, indigenous, and Chicana/o Studies scholars. In order to further illustrate how the women’s material and spiritual needs have changed so as to require new forms of spiritual engagement, I engage in a critical self-reflection of my own spiritual journey as a Tejana raised in the Catholic faith through the use of autoethnographic research methods and testimonio. I argue that these Tejanas have extended the political, feminist, and historical consciousnesses that they cultivated in Mexican American social causes into the religious and spiritual realms. For instance, these women transferred their critique of gender politics and hierarchies of power into the social setting of organized Catholicism with new spiritual practices and understandings, effectively remaking religion and subsequently engaging in processes of self-making by changing the ways they interact with Catholicism and are affected by it. Religion, as a site of social struggle for women, is political, that is, these Tejanas transformed the spiritual into a site of resistance, resolution, and reconciliation where they disrupt and challenge hierarchies of power and create strategies for healing themselves, their communities, and the earth.Item Fertility differentials and the redefinition of the normative structure across racial/ethnic lines(2009-05-15) Ayala Garcia, Maria IsabelThe United States has seen tremendous growth since it has achieved a population of 300 million. Interestingly, events like this mask the heterogeneity of fertility behavior particularly along racial/ethnic lines. Unfortunately, despite the voluminous literature examining the dynamics and differentials of fertility, extant studies suffer from several limitations including the treatment of racial/ethnic groups as homogenous, the cross-sectionality of their analyses, or their focus on either current or cumulative fertility ultimately underplaying the complexity of fertility behavior. Therefore, this dissertation investigates the fertility behavior of Mexican American and white women paying particular attention to race/ethnicity and social mobility by conducting a quantitative analysis of current and cumulative fertility behavior of women at three different points in their life course. The findings demonstrate the significant effect that socioeconomic characteristics and race have on explaining the higher fertility of Mexican American women in the United States thus, encouraging the adoption of a racial/ethnic stratification framework in studies of fertility.Item Freaks of the industry : peculiarities of place and race in Bay Area hip-hop(2010-05) Morrison, Amanda Maria, 1975-; Hartigan, John, 1964-; Flores, Richard R.; Stewart, Kathleen; Perez, Domino; Wakins, CraigThrough ethnography, I examine how hip-hop’s expressive forms are being used as the raw materials of everyday life by residents of the San Francisco Bay Area, home to what many regard as one of the most stylistically prolific, politically charged, and racially diverse hip-hop “scenes” in the world. This focus on regional specificity provides a greater understanding of the impact hip-hop is having on the ground, as an aspect of localized lived practice. Throughout, I make the case for the importance of ethnographically grounded localized research on U.S. hip-hop, which is surprisingly still relatively rare. Most scholars simply stress its continuity within a set of deterritorialized Diasporic African and African-American verbal-art traditions. My aim is not to contest this assertion, but to add to the body of knowledge about one of the most significant cultural inventions of the twentieth century by exploring hip-hop’s racial heterogeneity and its regional specificity. Acknowledging this kind of diversity allows us to reconceive what hip-hop is and how it matters in U.S. society beyond the ways it is usually framed: as either an oppositional form of black-vernacular culture or a co-opted and corrupted commodity form that reinscribes hegemonic values more than it actually contests them. Examining hip-hop within a specific, regionally delineated community reveals how hip-hop’s role in American life is more nuanced and complex. It is neither a pure vernacular expression of an oppressed class nor merely a cultural commodity imposed upon consumers and alienated from producers. In the Bay Area, hip-hop “heads” simultaneously consume mass-produced rap while producing homespun forms of music, dance, slang, fashion, and folklore. Through these forms, they construct individual and group identities that register primarily in expressive, affective terms. These novel cultural identities complicate rigid social markers of race, gender, and class; more specifically, they challenge the widely held perception that hip-hop is solely the terrain of inner-city young African-American men. More fundamentally, a sense of belonging is engendered through localized modes of expression and embodied style that manifest through shared practices, discourses, texts, symbols, locales, and imaginaries.Item General interest magazine language preference among Hispanics(Texas Tech University, 2004-08) Galvez, Robert AnthonyAn experiment was conducted to determine if there was a relationship between the way language is presented in a magazine article and Hispanics' perceptions of the article. Two hundred and seventeen respondents in west Texas read articles in Spanish, English and a mix of English with Spanish. Subjects were given a questionnaire to identify their affinity toward the articles, their ability to understand the articles, and their perceptions of the news value of the articles. The ARSMA-II scale was used to evaluate respondent's level of acculturation. Data analysis revealed Hispanics preferred the articles written in English and the mix of English and Spanish to the articles written in Spanish alone. No relationship was found between level of acculturation and preference for language presentation style.Item The immigrant as an adolescent consumer(2011-05) Sanchez, Magaly Torres; Henderson, Geraldine R. (Geraldine Rosa), 1963-; Rivera, MariaThis report examines the role of Latino consumers, specifically looking at Mexican-Americans and their first generation experiences. It looks at how these experiences influence their consumption patterns. While observing the idea that first generation Latinos are much like ‘adolescent consumers’, a concept stemming from the idea that much like teenagers Latino immigrants are in a sense coming of age in this country. They are under a whole different set of social norms, cultural expectations and values different from their country of origin. This report proposes a reconsideration of the heuristics that marketers hold for Latino consumer spending habits. It maintains the idea that Latino consumer behaviors should be attributed and conceptualized as a process of maturation, not just based on culture and class. Lastly it re-examines the Customer Based Brand Equity model and places it in the context of the Latino consumer while keeping in mind the above framework about Latinos as adolescent consumers.Item Issues in Mexican American education: Addressing the academic needs of Mexican American students at the secondary level(2010-12) Alvarez, Ricky A; Benavides, Alfredo H.; Midobuche, EvaIn light of the growing number of ethnic minority adolescents in the United States, it has long been recognized that the level of educational attainment of Mexican-American students is below to that of other ethnic minority communities in the United States. From towering impoverishment rates, lower parental education, dilapidated neighborhoods and communities, to a clash of culture, marginalized education, and impersonal behaviors, Mexican-American students have endured an educational challenge that has become more difficult to win than imagined. Entailed by cultural identity, exceptionalities, language, gender, economic status, health, beliefs, values, and perceptions of education, this thesis will not only make possible recommendations for the plight among Mexican-American education, but will also investigate the socioeconomic, sociocultural, and the supplementary issues and factors that influence the academic advancement of Mexican-American students at the secondary level.Item Junior high school teachers and the meaning perspectives they hold regarding their Mexican American students: an ethnographic case study(Texas Tech University, 1995-12) Herrera, Socorro GuadalupeThe major findings of this case study emerged from the qualitative research question: What meaning perspectives are indicated by teachers' discourse regarding their day-to-day interactions with their Mexican American junior high school students? These findings surround five meaning perspectives teachers hold in these daily interactions with these students. Two of these meaning perspectives are epistemic, one is psychological, and two are sociocultural. According to transformation theory, which served as the substantive theoretical framework for the study, a meaning perspective functions as a structure of assumptions and a belief system through which we interpret and evaluate experience. The two epistemic meaning perspectives identified in this study involve the ways in which teachers come to know what they know and the uses they make of that knowledge. These two epistemic meaning perspectives, reification and reductionistic prescriptivism were identified according to five different meaning schemes indicated in teachers discourse. A psychological meaning perspective of colorblind nonaccommodative denial was also indicated by teachers discourse in this case study. Psychological meaning perspectives involve the influences of such phenomena as self-concept, locus of control, and defense mechanisms. Additionally, two sociocultural meaning perspectives were identified. These sociocultural meaning perspectives are best described as ideologies; specifically the ideology of the benevolent autocrat and the ideology of the manana conflict. According to the transformation theoretical conceptualization of the term, distorted (that is based on or in limited, contradictory, and/or impermeable premises), four of the five (two epistemic and two sociocultural) meaning perspectives identified in this study are distorted. Therefore, these findings indicate that teachers' relationships with their Mexican American students are subject to interpretations which may be personally constraining and interactively self-defeating. That their students suffered the culture clash of the consequent interpretations is evident in teachers' own discourse. That teachers suffered as well is evident in the frustration and perpetual negativity notable in the same discourse. These findings point to the need for preservice education and inservice teacher education, grounded in critical reflection on premises and assumptions in prior learning and socialization, especially for those mostly White, monocultural educators who teach in cross-cultural learning environments.Item Making the modern migrant : work, community, and struggle in the federal Migratory Labor Camp Program, 1935-1947(2009-12) Martínez-Matsuda, Verónica; Zamora, Emilio; Green, Laurie B.; Falola, Toyin O.; Gutiérrez, David G.; McKiernan-González, JohnDuring the New Deal, the Farm Security Administration (FSA) developed what is arguably one of the most provocative and far-reaching programs for farm workers undertaken by the U.S. federal government to date. Through the Migratory Labor Camp Program the FSA promised to efficiently funnel workers to fulfill the agricultural industry’s labor demands while providing migrants modern, up-to-date housing and services to alleviate the well-documented substandard conditions many faced. Most scholars have analyzed the camps primarily as sites of labor, capital, and state regulation. Rather than view the camp program as simply a government effort to more efficiently coordinate the nation’s farm labor market, this study argues that the services, programs, and activities FSA officials administered in the camps sought to regulate and transform significant and often intimate social and cultural aspects of migrants’ daily lives. By examining the role of the camps’ architecture, medical clinics, nurseries and elementary schools, as well as the “self-governing” camp committees and councils, this dissertation engages in a gendered analysis of labor to reveal how the federal camps were unique dual-purpose domestic and labor spaces. Analyzing the camps as simultaneous productive and reproductive sites allows us to see them as part of a contested terrain in which complex issues of identity, community, citizenship, and labor were negotiated on a daily basis, affecting U.S. farm labor and race relations well beyond the perimeters of the federal camps.Item The mediating effect of acculturation on the effectiveness of culturally adapted cognitive behavioral therapy with Mexican Americans suffering from depression(2009-05) Villalobos, Griselda; Padilla, Yolanda C.; Holleran, Lori K.The purpose of this research study is to explore the role of culture in how Mexican Americans respond to mental health treatment. Cultural background is likely to affect not only the meaning attributed to mental illness, but also help-seeking and responses to treatment. Creating a match between treatment modalities and people's cultural backgrounds requires consideration of a person's cultural context. Cultural characteristics can vary not only across cultural groups, but even within groups can change across time. This study used a quasi-experimental pretest/posttest comparison group design to analyze culturally adapted cognitive behavioral therapy (CACBT) with Mexican Americans diagnosed with depression. A purposive nonprobability sample of 81 adult Mexican Americans diagnosed with depression was recruited from a mental health agency in El Paso, Texas. Forty-eight participants were assigned to a treatment group, which received CACBT, and 33 to a comparison group, which received treatment as usual. Depression was measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Participant acculturation level was measured using the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans-II. Independent and paired t tests were used to examine the effectiveness of the culturally adapted intervention. OLS regression analyses examined whether acculturation mediated the relationship between the culturally adapted intervention and depression. No direct effect was found between CACBT and depression relative to treatment as usual. The results showed that CACBT and treatment as usual both decreased depression scores. However, the interaction effect between acculturation and group assignment was significantly related to posttest depression scores. Thus, the effect of CACBT varied according to acculturation level. This study demonstrates the role that acculturation plays in how Mexican Americans respond to mental health treatment. An implication for social work practice is the need to use evidence-based practices that have been tested for their cultural appropriateness with Mexican Americans.