Reducing Mental Health Disparities Among Latinxs With a Telenovela Intervention
University of Nevada, Reno
Summary
The primary aim of our study is to determine the effectiveness of an transdiagnostic telenovela video intervention in reducing anxiety and depressive symptoms using a pre/post-test design with Spanish-speaking Latinxs.
Description
Telenovela video interventions are a low-resource, low-cost methodology developed to diminish the treatment-provider gap (Heilemann et al., 2017). Research shows that telenovela interventions represent an acceptable (Heilemann et al., 2018) and potent (Heilemann et al., 2017) intervention option for disseminating information to the Latinx population. Prior research utilizing transmedia telenovela interventions that include a telenovela component have demonstrated some effectiveness at reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression among Latinxs (Heilemann et al., 2017; Kajiyama et al., 2018) as h…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18+ years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria: 1. 18 years or older 2. Identify as Latinx 3. Prefer behavioral health services in Spanish 4. Meet the DSM criteria for any mild to moderate anxiety disorder 5. Ownership of a smartphone Exclusion Criteria: 1. Suicidality 2. Psychosis 3. Bipolar disorder 4. Severe anxiety disorders 5. Severe depressive disorders 6. Homicidality
Interventions
- BehavioralTransdiagnostic Telenovela Intervention
The intervention constitutes nine videos depicting the main character, Esperanza, who is struggling with anxiety and depression, undergoing therapy involving the a trandiagnostic treatment, and completing worksheets relating to the weekly therapy sessions.
Location
- La Clinica @ the UNR Psychological Services CenterReno, Nevada