Objective Latino immigrants experience acculturative stress and increased depression risk. Mindfulness meditation improves depressive symptoms, yet the vast majority of research has focused on English speaking populations. Methods In this randomized clinical trial with 2 parallel treatment groups, adults with moderate levels of perceived stress (n = 76) were recruited from the Los Angeles community from October 2015 to March 2016, stratified into Spanish- (n = 36) and English speaking (n = 40) language groups, and randomized for 6 weeks of treatment with standardized mindful awareness practices (MAPs) or health education (HE). Main outcome measure was depressive symptoms, measured by the Beck Depression Inventory. Results Using an intent-to-treat analysis, the primary outcome, depressive symptoms as indexed by the Beck Depression Inventory, showed greater improvement in MAPs vs. HE, with a between-group post-intervention mean difference of -2.2 (95% CI -4.4 – -0.07) and effect size of 0.28; similar effect sizes were found in the the Spanish- (0.29) and English speaking (0.30) groups. MAPs showed significant improvement relative to HE on secondary outcome of mindfulness with between group difference of 10.7 (95% CI4.5–16.9), but not perceived stress. Conclusion The comparable efficacy of Spanish and English formats of mindfulness meditation in improving depressive symptoms suggests that this community based intervention may mitigate depression risk in Latino adults who are experiencing social adversity. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03545074 .

This study presents a translation of the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) into Mexican Spanish, and examines its psychometric properties as well as its relationship with socio-demographic variables. The MAAS measures the frequency with which people experience mindful states. A sample of N = 622 healthy adult Mexicans completed the MAAS. A smaller sub-sample (n=195) completed the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), a well-known mindfulness measure, to obtain concurrent validity. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) revealed a one-factor solution, and reliability coefficients were adequate. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed adequate goodness of fit indexes. Moreover, relationships between Mexican Spanish MAAS scores and socio-demographic variables were also explored, and differences between-groups were found in mean scores both in alcohol consumers and religious practitioners. No other significant differences betweengroups were found. Results suggest that the Mexican version of the MAAS is a reliable and valid instrument to use with a healthy adult Mexican sample.