What’s up with everyone?’: The effectiveness of a digital media mental health literacy campaign for young people

Curran, Thomas; Ito-Jaeger, Sachiyo; Perez Vallejos, Elvira; Crawford, Paul

Abstract

Background: In 2021, the Arts and Humanities Research Council commissioned a mass-media mental health campaign called “What’s up With Everyone?” Here, innovative co-created messages were professionally storied and animated by an internationally recognized production company and focused on improving mental health literacy in five core areas: competition, social media, perfectionism, loneliness and isolation, and independence. Aims: This study examines the impact of the “What’s up With Everyone?” campaign on young people’s mental health awareness. Methods: Seventy-one (19 males, 51 females, M age = 19.20 years, SD = 1.66, range = 17–22) young people completed a one-sample, pre-post experiment to measure changes in knowledge, attitudes, confidence, and stigma of mental health struggles, as well as help-seeking for mental ill-health before and following exposure to animations. Results: Paired and one-sample t-tests revealed that knowledge, attitudes, confidence, and willingness to seek support improved at post-test. There were also significant reductions in the stigma towards depression following the animations. Conclusions: Continued long-term investment in campaigns such as “What’s up With Everyone?” seems warranted given the impact on mental health awareness, help-seeking, and stigma.

Citation

Curran, T., Ito-Jaeger, S., Perez Vallejos, E., & Crawford, P. (2023). What’s up with everyone?’: The effectiveness of a digital media mental health literacy campaign for young people. Journal of Mental Health, 32(3), 612-618. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2023.2182412

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 11, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Mar 6, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023-06
• Deposit Date: Jan 24, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 7, 2024
• Journal: Journal of Mental Health
• Print ISSN: 0963-8237
• Electronic ISSN: 1360-0567
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 32
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 612-618
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2023.2182412
• Keywords: Help seeking; digital media; mental health; youth
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/16497180
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09638237.2023.2182412