Depression and Latinx Adults: A Call for Cultural and Language Fairness in Mental Health Assessment

Abstract

This chapter begins with a description of the trends in the rates of depression in U.S. Latinx communities and identifies factors that contribute to depression. It addresses ethical codes and multicultural guidelines in psychology and counseling that call for the use of appropriate culturally and linguistically valid assessments in rendering accurate diagnoses. The authors present the challenges associated with, and recommendations for, establishing measurement equivalence of self-report instruments that are translated and adapted from English to Spanish.  They describe several psychological instruments that have been widely used in clinical and nonclinical settings despite the challenges. Ways to enhance fairness in assessment and  suggestions for future investigations are discussed.

Keywords: depression and Latinx adults; language equivalence in assessing depression; culturally and linguistically valid assessments