Abstract: Acculturation is an adaptive process of cultural adjustment. The new environment creates expectations that can take a toll on one's mental and physical health. Acculturative stress, or stress that is related to the process of acculturation, affects many immigrants and their families. Stressors include financial difficulties, lack of emotional support, poor language proficiency, and perceived and actual discrimination factors. This study examined the ways in which Mexican Americans attempt to overcome the barriers of acculturative stress. Their ability to navigate the hurdles of acculturation depends on several factors, including family support, self-support, and community support. This study hypothesized that these three factors would form the core of a strong support system that would ease the immigrant's acculturative stress. The researcher developed a questionnaire with 45 items that was distributed to 111 Mexican Americans in Orange County and San Diego, California. Inferential statistics were used to explore the possible cause-and-effect relationships between the factors. Analysis of variance and t tests compared groups of participants in terms of the variables investigated. The results showed statistically significant differences between the way in which men and women viewed their support systems. Mainly, the men perceived themselves as having greater amounts of self-support than did the women. There was also a statistically significant relationship between education levels and the type of support in the areas of perception of family support as well as self-support. There was a statistically significant relationship between number of years living in the United States and perception of language support. No statistical significances were found in other areas, which could be explained by various factors. The results from this study showed that acculturative stress is a complex phenomenon. Future research could examine each of the five constructs individually to understand their effects on the acculturation process. On a more practical level, it is necessary for mental health professionals to recognize acculturative stress and integrate it as part of the treatment process.