Intersectionality, Voz, and Agency: A Culture-Centered Approach to Understanding U.S.-Born Mexican Americans’ Depression Experiences

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis study explores depression and treatments among U.S.-born Mexican Americans. Through Differential Adaptation Theory and a culture-centered approach prioritizing voz and intersectionality, 18 interviewees discuss how within-group communication influences depression experience and treatment paths. All participants are insured and understand biomedical options with insurance. Intersectional data analysis reveals that biomedical options are a last resort. This Latina/o subgroup questions dominant structures through agentic choices that privilege face-saving cultural tendencies, family/kin relationship context, changing gender roles, and collectivist–individualist negotiation. Implications include challenging the dominant communicative framing of biomedical treatments as superior. The centrality of family/kin as powerful social support and instrumental in decision-making processes, the gender-race-age intersection, and intergenerational communication implicate agency in determining preferable coping mechanisms beyond biomedical bounds.