THE CONTRIBUTION OF ETHNIC MINORITY STATUS TO ADAPTIVE STYLE A Comparison of Mexican, Mexican American, and European American Children

Ethnic minority status and health minority status (i.e., presence of illness) may facilitate repressive adaptive style (RAS) in an additive fashion, and a “double stigma” hypothesis has been proposed to explain this additive effect. The authors compare RAS in European American, Mexican American, and Mexican children and examine the association of RAS to the traditional values of simpatia and collectivism. Results do not confirm the hypothesis that minority status contributes to RAS; however, collectivism is a significant predictor of defensiveness supporting a cultural hypothesis for RAS.