Analysis has proven that social media can negatively affect individuals’s psychological well being. However can it have an effect on individuals’s beliefs about psychological well being therapy?
Sure, in response to researchers at Union. In one of many first research to look at the affect of social media on individuals’s perceptions of psychological well being care, researchers found that viewing only a few social media posts that mock psychological well being therapy can have a profound affect on some individuals’s attitudes towards therapy.
The research seems within the newest concern of the journal Social Media + Society.
For the research, 186 individuals seen 10 tweets. The gender breakdown was 67 % male, 32 % feminine. For half of the individuals, 5 of the tweets derogated mental-health therapy (e.g., “My good friend is feeling unhappy once more right this moment. It is not melancholy or bipolar — these aren’t actual. STOP WHINING”) The opposite individuals seen tweets that had nothing to do with psychological well being therapy.
Members had been then requested for his or her opinions about therapy. The derogatory posts had no impact on male individuals or amongst feminine individuals who held conventional views towards gender roles of femininity. Nevertheless, ladies who didn’t maintain such conventional views of femininity had been affected by the detrimental posts. They reported extra stigma in opposition to mental-health therapy.
The analysis exhibits that even publicity to temporary social media posts that derogate psychological well being therapy can have giant impacts on what individuals take into consideration mental-health therapy, at the least amongst a subset of the inhabitants.”
George Bizer, professor of psychology
He was chair of the division and co-author of the research, together with Sarah Competiello ’21 and Catherine Walker, affiliate professor of psychology.
Based on the Nationwide Institute of Psychological Well being, about 51.5 million adults within the U.S. skilled a psychological well being situation in 2019. Of these, lower than half, or 23 million, acquired skilled psychological assist. One of many components that will stop individuals from searching for assistance is the stigma surrounding psychological well being.
Prior analysis exhibits that there’s an affiliation between excessive ranges of psychological well being stigma and detrimental attitudes towards help-seeking. Restricted analysis, nonetheless, has explored the extent to which social media content material could play a job in growing detrimental attitudes towards psychological well being therapy.
Bizer stated researchers had been stunned to study that girls who do not maintain conventional views of gender roles towards femininity seen the derogatory posts in another way.
“This was probably the most fascinating a part of the research,” Bizer stated. “We’re unsure why, however the outcomes recommend that males could be typically much less malleable when it comes to their attitudes towards psychological well being therapy, and that girls who do maintain conventional views would possibly typically be comfy searching for help, and these views could have shielded individuals from the detrimental posts. However that is all hypothesis at this level.”
Finally, Bizer stated, “the research gives extra perception into how social media can affect us and the way individuals could also be impacted in another way as a perform of their gender and persona.”
Bizer joined Union in 2005; Walker joined in 2015.
Supply:
Journal reference:
Competiello, S. Ok., et al. (2023) The Energy of Social Media: Stigmatizing Content material Impacts Perceptions of Psychological Well being Care. Social Media + Society. doi.org/10.1177/20563051231207847.