Engaging Through Story: Latine/x/a/o Parents' Responses to a Participatory, Research-Based Narrative Film

Arts-based dissemination offers powerful means for translating qualitative research findings into formats that engage communities around health and social issues. This study examines Latine/x/a/o parents/caregivers' perceptions of Nuestro Apoyo-a short, research-based narrative film developed through participatory screenwriting with Latina young adults. The film was designed to communicate qualitative findings about family mental health communication to Latine/x/a/o parents and caregivers. This article describes the participatory screenwriting process and examines Latine/x/a/o parents/caregivers' perceptions of the film. Using a culture-centric model of narratives in health promotion framework, we explored parents' engagement with the film and interpretations of its storyline and messages. One hundred parents (50 English-preference, 50 Spanish-preference) viewed the film online and completed post-viewing surveys, including the Narrative Quality Assessment Tool and open-ended questions. Parents reported strong narrative engagement, identification, transportation, and social proliferation-mechanisms of narratives that influence attitude and behavior change. Parents described their interpretations of the storyline and consistently identified key messages about help-seeking and family support. Findings highlight the potential of research-based narrative films as culturally grounded tools for knowledge translation and health promotion-particularly when created through participatory processes that directly involve people with lived experience as co-authors.