Reducing Mental Health Disparities Among Latinxs With a Telenovela Intervention

Purpose

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.

Condition

  • Anxiety Disorders

Eligibility

Eligible Ages
Over 18 Years
Eligible Genders
All
Accepts 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

Study Design

Phase
N/A
Study Type
Interventional
Allocation
N/A
Intervention Model
Single Group Assignment
Primary Purpose
Other
Masking
None (Open Label)

Arm Groups

ArmDescriptionAssigned Intervention
Experimental
Telenovela Arm
The UP telenovela (which is the experimental treatment arm) constitutes of nine videos depicting the main character, Esperanza, who is struggling with anxiety and depression, undergoing therapy involving the UP, and completing worksheets relating to the weekly therapy sessions.
  • Behavioral: Transdiagnostic 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.

Recruiting Locations

More Details

Status
Recruiting
Sponsor
University of Nevada, Reno

Study Contact

Detailed 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 have fotonovelas (Sanchez et al., 2019). To date researchers have not investigated how the telenovela approach combined with a transdiagnostic treatment paradigm might help reduce behavioral health disparities among Spanish-speaking Latinxs given that such an intervention would be easily disseminable and target the two most common disorders observed among this population. The primary aim of this 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.