Education, Economic Status and Social-Class Awareness of Mexican-Americans

A random sample interview study of a Mexican-Amer community in Southern Calif showed that: (1) Persons higher in the class structure had a greater degree of awareness of their own class positions & of class divisions in their ethnic community. (2) Mexican-Amer's who perceived class divisions among their own ethnic group placed themselves higher in the class structure, were younger, had higher incomes, were more often interviewed in English & were more heavily represented in later than in earlier generations. (3) The better educated & the younger R's perceived a larger N of classes, as did those who were interviewed in English. (4) R's unable to state their own class memberships had lower incomes, were in the less skilled occup's, & were more heavily represented among the foreign born than the US born. (5) The higher R's rated themselves as to SC, the larger the N of SC's they perceived. (6) R's in the higher ranking residential areas, those in the higher ranking occup'al categories, those with a greater amount of Sch'ing, & those speaking English in the interview, all ranked themselves higher in SC identification. (7) Although both cultural & econ variables enter into the determination of SC, the variables demonstrated to be the most strongly related to Mexican-Amer's perception of the Mexican-Amer class structure & of their own class position were those related to acculturation (Sch'ing, language, age, generation). A much weaker association obtained in the case of the econ indices (occup, income, residential area). AA.