Personality factor comparisons of Anglos and Mexican-Americans of driving-while-intoxicated offenders and non-offenders

This study investigated personality factors of Anglo and Mexican-American Driving-While-Intoxicated (DWI) offenders and nonoffenders. Frequency tabulations from a pilot study suggested that 5 of the 16 factors of the 16PF instrument might be related to ethnicity or offender status. These factors were A (cool versus warmhearted), B (less versus more intelligent), E (submissive versus dominant), H (shy versus bold), and Q2 (follower versus self-sufficient). Following the pilot study, research questions and hypotheses were stated. The hypotheses were: H1o—there will be no interaction effects between ethnic groups and DWI offender/nonoffender status; H2o—there will be no differences between ethnic groups in the personality factor scores; and H3o—there will be no difference in the personality factor raw scores of DWI offenders and nonoffenders.

In order to test these hypotheses, 308 adult males were drawn from two different settings. Eighty-three Anglos and 75 Mexican-Americans (total 158) were those who had been convicted of DWI in Lubbock and Crosby counties and mandated to attend the DWI education program conducted by The Center for School and Community Counseling at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas. Seventy-five Anglo males and 75 Mexican-American males (total 150), ranging in age from 18 to 65 years, were volunteer nonoffenders from Reese Air Force Base, Lubbock, Texas.

Results of analyses rejected all three hypotheses. A two-by-two MANOVA, using the subjects' raw scores on Factors A, B, E, H, and Q2, showed significant differences on ethnicity and offender/nonoffender status. Substantial interaction was found to exist between Factors H and Q2 (B<.05).