Spanish media coverage of youth mental health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic

BMC Psychiatry

Research

Juan Pablo Carrasco¹  Anne-Marie Saucier²  Rob Whitley³ 

[1] Deparment of Psychiatry, Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valencia, 46010, Valencia, Spain;Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria del Hospital Clínico de Valencia (INCLIVA), Valencia, Spain;Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Verdun, QC, Canada;Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Verdun, QC, Canada;Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada;

关键词: Stigma;    Mass media;    Mental health;    Mental disorder;    Youth;    Child;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12888-023-05054-7

 received in 2023-02-05, accepted in 2023-07-26,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe media portrayal of mental health is relevant in shaping the population’s attitudes towards mental disorders. However, there is little information about the representation of young mental health issues in the Spanish-language press, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The general objective of this study was to analyse the tone and content of Spanish newspaper articles about mental disorders in youth during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsWe collected media articles from the 10 most read news sources over a 6 month period (January-June 2021). These articles were coded for content using a standardised codebook, followed by an inductive thematic analysis. A total of 205 news items were evaluated.ResultsResults showed that the majority of the news items had an overall positive tone (68.3%), only 5.4% were stigmatising and only 7.3% were related to violence. However, few articles offered help seeking information (6%), adolescents were rarely quoted (14%) and children were never quoted. Substantial differences are described in terms of age, gender and disorder. The thematic analysis led to three emergent themes: (i) violence and victimisation; (ii) the COVID-19 pandemic; and (iii) technology and social media.ConclusionsThe percentage of news in the Spanish media that refer to young people’s mental health in a stigmatising way or in a way associated with violence is very low. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic may have promoted more positive discussion about youth mental health. However, major challenges remain to be addressed, as patients are seldom quoted, very few articles offer help-seeking information, and a narrative of victimisation without appropriate discussion of resilience regularly occurs.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2023

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