Curran T, Ito-Jaeger S, Perez Vallejos E, Crawford P. What’s up with everyone?’: The effectiveness of a digital media mental health literacy campaign for young people. J Ment Health. Jun 2023;32(3):612-618. doi:10.1080/09638237.2023.2182412
This study examined the impact of the digital mass media mental health campaign What’s Up With Everyone (WUWE). The campaign was co-created with youth (17-22) living in the United Kingdom (UK). The collaboration produced five short, animated videos, each targeting a specific mental health area: competition, social media, perfectionism, loneliness and isolation, and independence. Each video displays a short scenario and provides guidance for self-management and information on when and how to seek professional help. The videos launched across multiple social media platforms in early 2021 and reached over 17 million people within three months. The current study examined the effectiveness of the WUWE videos for improved health literacy and self-efficacy in a sample of seventy-one UK youth. Subjects completed a baseline assessment, viewed all five videos in a pseudo-randomized order, and then completed a post-video assessment. After viewing the WUWE videos, subjects reported greater willingness to seek professional psychological support, seen as both an increase in willingness to seek support and a decrease in reluctance to seek support. The WUWE videos also appeared to decrease stigma, increase self-confidence, increase knowledge of mental health issues, promote better attitudes towards mental health, and increase willingness to support others struggling with mental health issues. Overall, this suggests that WUWE is a reasonable tool with broad reach potential. Future research might further investigate how the animated stories and social media implementation strategies influence the outcomes seen here and in previous work.