Examining Mass Media, Mental Health Literacy, and Public Mental Health Stigma Among the Latinx Population Residing in Nontraditional Receiving Communities

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Abstract The Latinx population faces persistent and growing inequities in the access to, utilization, and quality of mental health care for depression, even after adjusting for health insurance status and socioeconomic factors. Mental health literacy and public mental health stigma continue to be persistent barriers to mental health services care in this population. Little is known about the types of media content available to and consumed by Latinx adults in non-traditional receiving communities and how Spanish-language media news portrays depression. The present study will address the following three aims: (a) characterize how Latinx adults use different types of mass media to seek information about depression and depression treatment and examine how social- demographics, acculturation factors, current depressive symptoms, and past experiences with mental health treatments are related to mass media use; (2) examine the relationships between mass media use and mental health literacy and public mental health stigma; and (c) conduct a content analysis of the depictions of depression in U.S. Spanish-language news sources to examine the presences of stereotypes, recovery themes, and educational information. Findings from this study will generate new knowledge on the role of mass media plays in shaping mental health literacy and public mental health stigma and in the Latinx population.