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. (in press). What’s up with everyone?’: The effectiveness of a digital media mental health literacy campaign for young people. Journal of Mental Health, Article 2182412. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2023.2182412

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 11, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Mar 6, 2023
• 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
• Article Number: 2182412
• 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
• Additional Information: Peer Review Statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope.; Aim & Scope: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=ijmh20; Received: 2022-01-31; Revised: 2022-12-16; Accepted: 2023-01-11; Published: 2023-03-06