In 1977, an exploratory survey examined the relative effects of family and offspring cultural maintenance upon offspring psychological characteristics and college achievement, using the responses of 1,573 Chicano college students from Texas to a mailed questionnaire. The hypothesis was that holding family income constant, high family Spanish usage and/or high offspring Spanish fluency would result in higher offspring self-esteem, more ambitious socioeconomic plans, greater assuredness of achieving such plans, greater locus of control, and higher grades in college. A 41-page exploratory multipurpose questionnaire was developed to obtain data on the subjects' family income, Spanish usage in the home, Spanish fluency, self-esteem, educational and income plans, assuredness of achieving plans, locus of control, and college grade-point average. Respondents ranged from 17 to 62 years of age, with the median age of 22. Path analysis data revealed that high family Spanish usage yielded both negative direct effects and positive indirect effects on the psychological and achievement characteristics of the offspring. The negative effects were partially offset or sometimes reversed when such homes promoted the bilingualism of children. However, it was an offspring's bilingualism which was a more consistent and stronger determiner in the production of positive effects. (NQA)