A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF VALUE ORIENTATIONS IN AMERICAN SOCIETY, MEXICAN SOCIETY AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS (TEXAS)

The purposes of the research described in this study were to detect value orientations of American society, Mexican American society and of high school students in South Texas.;Data for the analysis of the youth value systems were obtained from the total sample of 439 Anglo and Mexican American high school students (240 Anglo and 189 Mexican-American, ten students did not mark their ethnicity).;Gordon's Survey of Personal Values and Survey of Interpersonal Values were utilized to measure youth value systems. Factors such as: age, ethnicity and sex of the students were obtained through Socio-economic Questionnaire.;In regard to the youth value systems three null hypotheses were tested and all of them were rejected on the basis of the findings.;In regard to value orientations in American society and in Mexican American society, data were obtained through content analysis.;Hypothesis one was concerned with value differences across age levels. The Chi-square test of significance and discriminant analysis were utilized to test hypothesis one. The results of the analyses indicated that there is an overall significant difference of value systems across age levels of the youth.;Hypothesis two, dealing with the differences between the youth value systems of males and females. This hypothesis was also tested using the Chi-square test of significance and discriminant analysis. The results of these tests indicate that there are significant differences in youth value systems of males and females. Males stress more on leadership and independence; females on the other hand put more emphasis on benevolence and conformity.;Hypothesis three was concerned with the relationships between youth value systems and their ethnicity. This hypothesis was tested utilizing the Chi-square test of significance and discriminant analysis. The results of both tests indicate that there is a relationship between value systems of the youth and ethnicity. Anglo students tend to score higher on leadership, independence and decisiveness; Mexican-American students tend to score higher on conformity and orderliness.;The results of content analysis and the results of statistical analyses indicate a similar pattern of value orientations in American society, Mexican society and of the youth.