Vida Alegre: Preliminary Findings of a Depression Intervention for Immigrant Latino Mothers

OBJECTIVES:This article reports the outcome of a pilot study of a cognitive behavioral group therapy (CBGT) intervention—Vida Alegre (the contented life)—designed for use with depressed immigrant mothers living in communities with small but rapidly growing Hispanic populations.METHOD:The study used a pretest/posttest/follow-up design to examine whether exposure to the intervention reduced symptoms of depression.RESULTS:Although based on a small, nonrandomized sample, the results are promising at pretest/baseline, the average Center for Epidemiology Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D) score was 25; at posttest and follow-up, the average CES-D scores were 12 and 11.3, respectively. Wilcoxon signed-ranks tests showed that the pretest and posttest scores are significantly different (Z = –2.22, p < .05, r = .67), indicating a decline in depression. A content analysis of transcripts from three focus groups indicates the usefulness of intervention.CONCLUSIONS:This study demonstrates that an existing CBGT can be modified to address immigrant issues.