DTIC ADA114849: Social Attitudes among Hispanic and Mainstream Navy Recruits.

📝 Description

Eighty Hispanic and 80 Mainstream Navy recruits responded to a 78 item questionnaire measuring attitudes toward a broad sample of social issues. Several factor analyses were carried out and revealed that only one factor (Religiosity) had the same meaning for the two samples. There were no differences between the two samples on religiosity. The structuring of the items by the two samples suggests different concerns and emphases: The Mainstream factors contrast Sexual Liberalism with Conservatism. The most similar Hispanic factor linked this dimension with Religiosity. The Mainstream data produced a Tendermindedness factor that has emerged in many factor analyses of social attitudes done on data obtained from college students, but the Hispanics did not produce this factor. The Hispanics produced a Political Conservatism vs Liberalism factor which the Mainstream sample did not produce; also a Mysticism factor which was missing from the Mainstream factor analysis. We conclude that the stereotype of Hispanics as more religious than the Mainstream is not supported by these data. At least, the way the Navy is recruiting Hispanics there is no evidence in support of that stereotype. The Hispanic emphasis on a Political factor suggests that they may be more concerned with this dimension than Mainstream Navy recruits. That finding also fits other data collected in this project which shows that the Hispanic Navy recruits have a more complex perception of political stimuli than the Mainstream.