Results indicate that youth born outside the United States reported greater frequency of drug use at intake into treatment than those born in the United States, supporting the hypothesis. Direct relationships between acculturation and drug use have been established in studies conducted with community samples of adolescents. The majority of researchers have found that as Hispanics become more acculturated and their families lose some of their ties to traditional Hispanic cultural mores, frequency of substance use typically increases. This study examined the relationship between acculturation and severity of drug use among a sample of severely impaired Hispanic adolescents referred for residential substance abuse treatment. It was hypothesized that lower levels of acculturation would be associated with higher levels of substance use. However, in examining acculturation, the study calls attention to the fact that acculturation is but one piece of a very complex puzzle with this sample of distressed children and families. Tables, references