Stephanie Carrera

Sociology 351
Research Critique
Depressive Symptoms Among Immigrant Latino Sexual Minorities
Many studies have been conducted to determine the prevalence of depression among
American gay men. However, there is very limited information on immigrant Latino sexual
minorities. The focus of this research study was on the rural South where there isnt a lot of data
on the subject, yet in recent years a lot of immigrant Latinos have begun to move into the area.
More specifically, the study took place in North Carolina. There were two goals researchers
hoped to achieve through community-based participatory research (CBPR) and Respondentdriven Sampling (RDS). Those include, more accurate and up to date rates of prevalence and
potential correlates of depressive symptoms among immigrant Latino gay men.
Several researchers participated in this study. Twelve to be exact. Due to the large number
of people involved in this research study, I have decided to focus on the first person listed
because it is ordered by those who contributed the most to the least. Scott D. Rhodes is a
professor at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Throughout his
lifetime he has acquired his PhD, MPH, CHES and FAAHB. He works for the department of
Social Sciences and Health Policy. His background is very indicative of why he chose to do this
research study. His areas of interest specifically focuses on, the integration of community
development and health promotion and disease prevention interventions in both rural and urban
communities (Wake Forest University). The article was publish by NIH and he has a very
extensive background in this field so the article is very reliable in terms of its data.
In order to conduct the research, there was a partnership between the researchers and
several other groups to develop effective interventions. Some of the partnerships include, public
health departments, AIDS service organizations, the local Latino community, and Latino-serving
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community-based organizations. The purpose of making these partnerships was to get a better
understanding of how to help this gay community (Rhodes). This method is referred to as
community-based participatory research (CBPR).
To gather the actual research data, a respondent-driven sampling (RDS) method was
performed. RDS utilizes a chain-referral method to gather the most random and unbiased
samples in the target population. It relies on the first respondent to recruit others. Its like a chain
reaction intended to accumulate as many participants as possible. The study began with 17 group
members called seeds trained in RDS sent to recruit other members from 7 different counties in
North Carolina. The counties were chosen if they had a population density less than 1000
inhabitants with a growing percentage of self-identified gay Latino men. Each participant had to
be at least 18 years of age. The enrollment process included calling a toll free number in order to
assess whether the participants were eligible. This chain-referral process continued until 190
participants were recruited. Once the data collection began, each participant sat down with a
trained interviewer that gained their trust in a private location. The interview took anywhere from
45-90 minutes and the participants were compensated with $50 once they were finished.
Eleven factors were measured to determine whether or not each person participating in
the study were clinically depressed or not. These factors included self esteem, day-to-day
discrimination, perceived victimization, perceived unfairness, sexual compulsivity, current living
situation, religiosity, acculturation, depressive symptoms and descrimination-related symptoms.
Self esteem was measured using the 6-item Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. For day-to-day
discrimination, discrimination-related symptoms, current living situation and perceived
victimization, respondents were asked a question and they were expected to give a Yes or No
answer. Sexual compulsivity and religiosity were measured by using a scaled questionnaire. The
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social support section and acculturation were measured by using the Index of Sojourner Social
Support Scale. Finally, depressive symptoms were determined with the Center of
Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (Rhodes). In order to determine the correlation,
statistical analysis was calculated.
The prevalence of the eleven factors were calculated and placed in a table for an easy
comparison. According to the data, a majority of the individuals displayed clinical depression
and low acculturation in terms of language and social relations (Rhodes). They also experienced
frequent to very frequent sexual compulsivity and high internalized homo-negativity. Participants
also demonstrated high self esteem. The factors that demonstrated a low prevalence were
descrimination-related stress, day-to-day discrimination, religiosity and perceived unfairness
(Rhodes). Another aim of this study was to find correlates to the depressive symptoms. Nine of
the 11 symptoms were greatly associated to depressive symptoms. Social support, day-to-day
discrimination and perceived unfairness were not shown to be greatly correlated with depressive
symptoms (Rhodes). To summarize the data findings, a great number of participants were
identified as having clinical depressive symptoms, high sexual compulsivity and internalized
homo-negativity. Researchers determined there is a great need for resources that provide mental
health services. There is an increasing number of Latin immigrants in the rural South
communities and with that comes a greater demand for organizations to help gay men cope with
their depression. Although there are programs available, they arent as strong as they should be to
provide education and help. Although this was a significant data finding of this issue, there are
still many studies needed in order to further solidify the results.
When I was looking for my research article, we were discussing LGBT issues. I realized
there was still a lot of information I didnt understand so I decided to narrow my search to this

topic. I chose this article specifically for a few reasons. First, it is very recent. It was published in
2013 so it is interesting to know how much research we have yet to conduct in the LGBT
community. Also, the focus group is not the usual American. Immigrant Latinos have a difficult
time assimilation to our culture, so to add homosexuality into the mix must be even more
difficult. Its much needed and very new.
Due to the double issues faced by immigrant Latino gay men, I assumed there would be a
high number of cases with clinical depression. However, there were some pieces of data that
were surprising. For example, I was not expecting for immigrants to experience low perceived
unfairness or discrimination. The article actually stated that second generation Latino Americans
have a higher rate of this factor. As I read this, I began to wonder. I finally imagined that this
could be due to the simple happiness to be in America with a job. My parents are immigrants and
they have always said that although its hard to assimilate to the American culture, the lifestyle is
much easier than the farm life they grew up on. Ironically, the article stated this same hypothesis
further in the reading. A limitation to the research article is the participants. Although they tried
to build trust between the interviewer and each person as much as they could, there is always the
possibility that they will omit information possible due to self shame. On this aspect, there isnt
much researchers can do because they are depending on the responses from the participants.
I am very glad there is a research study such as this one because it will bring more
awareness to the issue. I certainly didnt know this was an issue because sometimes college
students get so accustomed to the bubble of acceptance a university provides.

Works Cited
Rhodes, Scott D., Omar Martinez, Jason Daniel, Jorge Alonzo, Eugenia Eng, Stacy Duck, Mario
Downs, Fred R. Bloom, Alex B. Allen, Cindy Miller, and Beth Reboussin. "Depressive
Symptoms Among Immigrant Latino Sexual Minorities." NIH Public Access,
May 2013.

"Wake Forest University School of Medicine." Wake Forest University School of Medicine ::
Division of Public Health Sciences. Web. 20 May 2014.