What’s up with everyone?’: The effectiveness of a digital media mental health literacy campaign for young people

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.