A Differential Analysis of Depressed Mood Symptomology among Welfare-reliant African American and Latinx Women Heads of Household

Abstract

ABSTRACT The mixed-method study is a differential analysis of clinical depression symptomology among a sample (N = 30) of welfare-reliant African American and Latinx women whom are heads of their households. It is one of only a few such studies that compare these groups on a depression measure. Most of the sample were enrollees in state-mandated Welfare-to-Work (W-t-W) in a southeastern state along the Atlantic coast. The Black women were born and raised in the local community. The Latinx women were non-English speaking immigrants from neighboring countries in the Caribbean, and Central America (e.g., Cuba, El Salvador, Puerto Rico, etc.). Using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), the study compares and contrasts scores for both cohorts, and assesses statistically significant differences in mean scores. CES-D Scale alpha coefficients were 0.81 and 0.93 for the Black and Latinx group, respectively. Analysis included frequency distributions, measures of central tendency, correlation analysis, and t-tests of independent samples. A key finding was that both cohorts indicated depressive symptoms, but the immigrant Latinx cohort scores were in the severe range. Implications are discussed in relation to current welfare policy, resource re-allocation for mental health services, and a need for restructuring federal and state welfare systems.