ABSTRACT

Mental health (MH) stigma affects help seeking behaviors of youth, particularly youth of color. This article reports the impact of Look Around (LA), a social media campaign designed to reduce MH stigma and increase help seeking in 6th- to 12th-grade youth in one Midwestern county. The campaign utilized movie theater advertising, social media, web-based advertising, and school-based media/events over a school year. Using a pre–posttest survey research design with 11,478 6th- to 12th-grade students in a Midwestern county, we used paired t-tests to examine pre- to posttest changes in survey items addressing MH stigma and help seeking attitudes. We then used a regression model to examine change by racial subgroup on a composite of all the items. Lastly, we used an independent t-test to examine differences between high-change youth and low-change youth on academic performance, attendance, discipline, and MH screening scores. Posttest improvements in the stigma and help-seeking for all youth were observed, but controlling for all covariates (grade level, sex, etc.), youth of color reported lower levels of change compared to White youth. Social media campaigns are useful in addressing MH stigma and help seeking, but messaging may need to attend to the cultural characteristics of all youth.

摘要

心理健康（MH）的污名会影响寻求青年（尤其是有色青年）行为的帮助。本文报道了环视（LA）的影响，这是一项旨在减少中西部一个县6至12年级青年的MH污名和增加寻求帮助的社交媒体运动。该活动在一个学年内利用了电影院广告，社交媒体，基于网络的广告以及基于学校的媒体/事件。通过对中西部一个县的11478名6至12年级学生进行的事前测验调查研究设计，我们使用配对的t检验来检验针对MH污名的调查项目的事前测验和事后测验变化，并帮助寻求态度。然后，我们使用回归模型来检查所有项目的组合中各种族子组的变化。最后，我们使用一个独立的牛逼-测试以检验高学历青年和低学历青年在学业成绩，出勤率，纪律和MH筛查分数方面的差异。观察到所有青年的耻辱感和寻求帮助的事后改善，但在控制所有协变量（年级，性别等）的情况下，有色青年报告的变化水平低于白人青年。社交媒体运动对于解决MH污名化和寻求帮助很有用，但信息传递可能需要关注所有青年的文化特征。