Symposia
Dissemination & Implementation Science
Daniel Saravia, PhD
California State University, Northridge
Reseda, California
Isabel López, M.A.
Graduate Student
University of California, Santa Barbara
Sylmar, California
Patricia Orozco-Perez, PhD
Post Baccalaureate Student
California State University, Northridge
Northridge, California
Jonathan Martinez, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
California State University, Northridge
Northridge, California
About 19% of U.S. adults have a mental illness and less than half receive psychotherapy (NIMH, 2019). The service use gap is noted even more among ethnic minorities. Despite similar prevalence rates, non-Latinx Whites receive services at greater rates than Latinxs (NIMH, 2019). Stigma and mental health literacy (MHL) may account for this, as Latinxs reportedly hold higher levels of stigma and lower levels of MHL (Benuto et al., 2019).
To increase service engagement, it is imperative to reduce stigma and enhance MHL. We examined the efficacy of mental health videos in reducing stigma and increasing MHL and help-seeking intentions (HSI) among Latinxs. Four video formats were used: educational, roundtable, narrative, & a health-related control video. The research team created the narrative video of a Latino male’s mental healthcare journey. A total of 424 non-college, Latinx adults completed pre-and post-MHL, stigma, & HSI measures and were randomly presented with one video. Thirty-five percent of participants were between 35-54 years old and 54.7% identified as female.
We hypothesized that 1) participants who viewed the roundtable video would have the largest stigma decrease, and 2) participants who viewed the narrative video would have the largest MHL & HSI increase. Three mixed-factorial ANOVAs were conducted. Video condition was our between-subjects factor, and time was a repeated-measure factor.
Analyses revealed a significant interaction between video and time on stigma, F (3,420) = 2.611, p = .051, and a significant interaction between video and time on MHL, F (3,420) = 2.894, p = .035. Further, stigma was significantly lower in time 2 for the roundtable video (M = 20.2762, SD = 8.602) than the narrative video (M = 22.4874, SD = 8.506 p = .045). Mental health literacy scores were significantly higher in time 2 for the educational video (M = 8.74, SD = 1.515) compared to the narrative video (M = 7.95, SD = 5.23, p < .001) and control (M = 8.29, SD = 1.513 p = .034).
As hypothesized, participants who viewed the roundtable video had significantly lower stigma scores than participants who viewed the narrative video. Contrary to our second hypothesis, participants who viewed the educational video had the highest MHL increase compared to both narrative & control videos.
Results highlight effective video content for reducing stigma and increasing MHL among Latinxs. Future research is encouraged to expand upon this study to develop accessible mental health resources for historically underserved communities and advance our field’s cultural responsiveness.