ABSTRACT
It has been observed (Ardila, 1993; Betancourt & Lopez, 1993; Ramirez, 1983) that a North American-Western European ideology is dominant in cross-cultural psychology. The North American and Western European perspectives, based on notions of cultural and racial superiority, conceive of the cultures and families of people of color as interfering with the cognitive and emotional development of children and adolescents. Ramirez and Castaneda (1974) identified the exclusivist and superiority perspectives of the North American and Western European paradigms as a damaging culture view in developmental psychology. This perspective, prominent in re-search on Mexican Americans, served as the basis for enacting educational policies and practices congruent with mainstream, middle-class American values. These strategies suggest that Mexican Americans and other ethnic and cultural groups of color must assimilate if they hope to achieve and
adapt to American society (Buriel, 1984). However, most of the research supporting the damaging culture hypothesis (Diaz-Guerrero, 1955; Heller, 1966, 1971; Holtzman, Diaz-Guerrero, & Swartz, 1975) has been fraught with conceptual and methodological difficulties (Ramirez, 1983; Ramirez, in press). This study addresses some of these shortcomings by employing a cultural values approach in examining the family values and mental health of Mexican, Mexican American, and Anglo American adolescents.
