Vigodnier, Eva Victoria, authorChavez, Ernest, advisorBorrayo, Evelinn, advisorPrince, Mark, committee memberGonzalez-Voller, Jessica, committee member2024-09-092024-09-092024https://hdl.handle.net/10217/239289Cancer diagnosis and treatment are related to adverse mental health outcomes, including increased depression and anxiety symptoms. Literature shows that lung cancer (LC) and head and neck cancer (HNC) patients report among the highest rates of depression and anxiety. These outcomes have been shown to be worse among medically underserved cancer patients, including the US Latinx population. However, no research exists that investigates rates of depression and anxiety among US Latinx LC and HNC patients nor potential protective factors. Further, research shows that the ways in which people cope with stressors has both positive and negative impact on mental health factors. The present study analyzed coping, depression, and anxiety outcomes among medically underserved US Latinx cancer patients. Results indicate that 29.51% of medically underserved US Latinx people newly diagnosed with LC or HNC report clinically relevant depression symptoms and 59.02% report clinically relevant anxiety symptoms. Self-efficacy in several forms of adaptive coping were also found to serve as protective factors toward depression and/or anxiety symptomatology and differences in coping self-efficacy were observed between individuals that met the clinical cut-offs for depression and/or anxiety across various coping strategies. Self-efficacy in coping strategies that were problem-focused and aimed at stopping unpleasant thoughts and emotions, were found to be most predictive of reduced depressive and anxious symptomatology. The present study is the first to explicate mental health outcomes among US Latinx people newly diagnosed with LC or HNC and to identify salient coping factors that buffer depression and anxiety symptoms. Implications for mental health intervention in oncological treatment settings are discussed.born digitaldoctoral dissertationsengCopyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.copinghealthunderserveddisparitiescancerLatinxText