The general criteria for study inclusion required that participants be English-speaking adults 18 years or older via self-report. Specific criteria focused on three elements: 1) race/ethnicity, 2) lifetime history of depression or anxiety, and 3) healthy without history of major psychiatric illness. Ethnicity criteria were established because we wanted to focus primarily on non-Hispanic Blacks, with the initial intent of recruiting a smaller group of Whites for comparison purposes only. Therefore, anyone who did not self-identify as non-Hispanic Black/African American or non-Hispanic White/Caucasian was excluded. The general and ethnicity criteria were assessed using the Focus Group Screening Instrument1 that was developed for this study.
