Summary Some writers have argued that fatalism is a cultural characteristic of Mexican Americans, while others contend that fatalism in this group is due to socioeconomic factors. The present study compared 86 Anglo- and 80 Mexican-American high school boys and girls on Rotter's Internal-External Locus of Control (I-E) scale, family income, and familism which was used as a measure of Mexican-American cultural identity. Analyses of variance revealed Anglo Americans were more internal on the politics dimension of the I-E scale, while Mexican Americans were more internal on the respect subcategory. Girls of both groups were more internal than boys in the academics subcategory. In addition, Mexican Americans had lower family incomes and higher familism scores. Subsequent analyses of covariance revealed that the ethnic difference in politics was removed when controlling for family income. Controls for family income and familism did not have a bearing on any of the other findings.
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Buriel et al. (1980) studied this question.