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There have been few qualitative approaches to the study of substance use treatment, despite the potential for such studies to provide researchers and clinicians with information that reflects the actual experience of substance users. This study focused on the main themes associated with the perceived advantages and disadvantages of continuing or discontinuing substance use by 74 substance users with comorbid depressive symptoms, prior to entering a brief cognitive-behavioral intervention in Mexico City. Through pile sorting, a structured inductive qualitative method, nine themes were identified as a result of a decisional balance measure: (1) mental health and emotional well-being, (2) beliefs and expectations about substances, (3) physical health, (4) family relationships, (5) social relationships, (6) daily life functioning, (7) finances, (8) sexuality, and (9) functioning in the workplace. The most common themes were “mental health and emotional well-being” and “beliefs and expectations about substances.” The least common were “family relationships,” “sexuality,” and “functioning in the workplace.” Our results suggest areas to be addressed in prevention and intervention programs.

In this chapter, we review important cultural considerations in the treatment of depression for racial/ethnic minorities. We accomplish this by first reviewing the epidemiology of depression among different racial/ethnic groups in the USA, focusing on Latinx, Black and African Americans, Asian Americans, and American Indians. We then review research that has investigated variability in depression along important contextual factors within racial/ethnic minority groups. Afterwards, we review the literature on psychotherapy for depression with racial/ethnic minorities, highlighting commonalities and differences across different treatment adaptations and approaches. Finally, we conclude with recommendations for clinicians and researchers, including the integration of therapist cultural competence and therapy cultural adaptations, as well as attention to heterogeneity within different racial/ethnic groups and the role that systems of privilege and oppression play in shaping these differences.

Parents’ preparedness for parenthood and their parenting skills have important implications for child development and family functioning. Thus, there is great value in addressing parents’ parenting skills via prevention and intervention. Yet despite a modest literature on the use of empirically validated parenting interventions with heterosexual couples, even less work has examined the utility or validity of empirically validated parenting interventions for lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer (LGBQ) parents. This chapter provides an overview of select research on LGBQ family building, the transition to parenthood, and parenthood, followed by a discussion of evidence-based parenting interventions. It attends to ways in which the LGBQ parenting research can inform unique considerations or modifications to existing intervention approaches. It concludes with a case study that illustrates some of the challenges that a lesbian couple might face in building their family and navigating parenting issues.