This study, conducted by Masten, Penland and Nayani (1994), examined whether Mexican-American women evidence the same negative relationship between depression and acculturation shown by other Hispanic groups of women (the less the acculturation level, the greater the depression). The research is relevant for social work because there is a tendency for much of the psychosocial literature to combine Mexican-Americans with other Latin/Hispanic groups despite the fact that there is some research indicating that they may be a unique population with different characteristics than other Hispanics---a fact which social workers need to be aware of in order to plan and implement appropriate interventions (Kendall, 1997).
The general purpose of this study was to examine for a relationship between measures of acculturation and depression in Mexican-American women. The authors labeled the study as merely exploratory in nature and, therefore, did not formulate any hypotheses or research questions.
However, in a brief but fairly comprehensive review of 12 current studies drawn from reputable journals, it was noted that most of the existing research indicated that the negative relationships between acculturation and depression customarily observed in studies of non-Mexican-American Hispanic groups tended to be relatively weak or non-existent in studies of Mexican-American samples. It was noted that one possible explanation for these findings, other than the fact that Mexican-Americans represent a unique group, was that most of the existing research in the area had used measures of acculturation and depression that were psychometrically unsound.
To correct for the problem of unsound data collection instruments, the authors selected the Center for Epidemiological Studies (CES) Depression Scale as the measure of depression; and the Olmedo Acculturation scale as the measure of acculturation. The authors provide some, althoug
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