THE EFFECTS OF A MENTAL-HEALTH VIDEO ON THE SOCIAL SKILLS KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES OF MEXICAN IMMIGRANTS

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a Spanish mental health video, ''Cuida Su Salud Mental,'' on the relationship attitudes and social skills knowledge of a Mexican immigrant sample. Subjects consisted of 72 Spanish speaking English as a second language (ESL) students recruited from the Paramount Adult School, in the county of Los Angeles. The Solomon (1949) Four Group Design was used. Half of the subjects were pretested on knowledge and attitudes about effective communication skills and relationships, respectively. All subjects view either the mental health video or a control video, and then were posttested on knowledge and attitudes. Results indicated that the mental healthy video (MHV) group exhibited more knowledge, F(1, 62) = 10.61, p = 0.002, and less risky attitudes, F(1, 62) = 4.29, p = 0.043, than the control video group. The MHV group also showed an increase in knowledge from the pretest to the posttest, F(1, 35) = 7.36, p = 0.01. Finally, both video groups reported a decrease in risky attitudes from pretest to posttest, F(1, 34) = 18.21, p = 0.001. These results support the use of ''Cuida Su Salud Mental'' as a productive and cost-effective mental health intervention that can be used to reach a large segment of the Spanish speaking community.