# Addressing the Social-Structural Determinants of Mental Health through Adaptation of a Transdisciplinary Ecological Intervention Model for Mexican Immigrants

> **NIH NIH U54** · UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO HEALTH SCIS CTR · 2021 · $270,406

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT
The goal of this study is to test a transdisciplinary ecological approach to reducing mental health disparities
among Mexican immigrants by adapting and integrating a multilevel community-based advocacy, learning, and
social support intervention (Immigrant Well-being Project, IWP) into existing efforts at three community partner
organizations that focus on mental health, education, legal, and civil rights issues for Mexican immigrants. This
research is innovative and significant because it employs cutting edge strategies to address social-structural
determinants of mental health and examines the community-engaged process of adapting and testing the
impact of a multilevel intervention originally designed for refugees. The IWP intervention emphasizes a
sustainable and replicable partnership model between community-based organizations and universities that
involves Mexican immigrants and undergraduate advocates working together to: a) increase immigrants’
abilities to navigate their communities; b) improve immigrants' access to community resources; c) enhance
meaningful social roles by valuing immigrants' culture, experiences, and knowledge; d) reduce immigrants'
social isolation; and e) increase communities’ responsiveness to immigrants through changes in policy and
practice. The IWP is administered by university students enrolled in a service learning course, and has two
elements: 1) Learning Circles, which involve cultural exchange and one-on-one learning opportunities, and; 2)
Advocacy, which involves collaborative efforts to mobilize community resources related to health, housing,
employment, education, and legal issues. Studies of the intervention model with refugees demonstrated
feasibility, appropriateness, acceptability, and evidence that the intervention decreased participants’
psychological distress and increased protective factors, and impacted changes in system-wide policies and
practices. After completing in-depth ethnographic interviews with 24 Mexican immigrant adults to elucidate
their mental health needs, stressors, current political/economic/social context, and local solutions, and a
process of community engagement and intervention adaptation, a mixed methods strategy with data collected
from 90 participants at four time points over a period of 14 months will be used to test the impact of the 6-
month intervention on reducing psychological distress, increasing protective factors (access to resources,
English proficiency, environmental mastery, and social support), and achieving system-level changes in
organizational, local, and state policies and practices that impact Mexican immigrants’ well-being. Mechanisms
of intervention effectiveness will be explored by testing mediating relationships between protective factors and
psychological distress. Qualitative data will explore feasibility and acceptability of the intervention, participants’
experiences in the intervention, and unexpected impacts; document m...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10215248
- **Project number:** 5U54MD004811-10
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO HEALTH SCIS CTR
- **Principal Investigator:** JESSICA R GOODKIND
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $270,406
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2010-05-01 → 2024-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10215248

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10215248, Addressing the Social-Structural Determinants of Mental Health through Adaptation of a Transdisciplinary Ecological Intervention Model for Mexican Immigrants (5U54MD004811-10). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10215248. Licensed CC0.

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