Societal perspectives of mental health are often affected by the media consumed by the general public. A character with a mental health condition is usually shown being attacked for their condition, or worse, portrayed as violent. Although these portrayals seem small at first, continuing to portray characters with a mental health condition in a negative light may impact a person’s decision to seek help. Information from the USC Annenberg school of communication research.
According to the University of Southern California Annenberg’s 2016-2022 study, “Mental Health Conditions Across 300 Popular Films,” these are the following statistics of mental health portrayals in popular films in 2022:
Demographic:
- 6% of characters portrayed with a mental condition are teens, but 29% of U.S. teens experienced “poor” mental health in 2021.
- The sex distribution is almost evenly distributed, with 50.6% of characters with mental disorders being male, while 49.4% of characters are female.
- 7 characters from the LGBTQ+ community are portrayed with a mental health condition, but 0 transgender or nonbinary characters were portrayed with a mental health condition in popular films between 2016 – 2022.
- 76.3% of characters portrayed with a mental health condition are white.
- 0 characters portrayed with a mental health condition were Native American between 2016 – 2022.
- 18% of characters with a disability are portrayed with a mental health condition in 2022, which is lower compared to 2016 and 2019, which portrayed characters with a disability and a mental health condition at a 53% and 42% rate, respectively.
Breakdown of mental health condition types represented by films in 2022:
- About 28.9% of characters with mental health conditions portray addiction.
- About 24.7% of characters with mental health conditions portray anxiety or PTSD.
- About 21.7% of characters with mental health conditions portray mood disorders.
- About 14.4% of characters with mental health conditions depict suicidal based behaviors.
- About 8.2% of characters with mental health conditions portray OCD.
- 0 characters with mental health conditions portray cognitive impairment or spectrum disorders in top-grossing films in 2022.
Breakdown of prevalence of Mental Health representation in film ratings:
- 57% of characters with mental health conditions were found in R-rated films.
- 36.7% of characters with mental health conditions were found in PG-13-rated films.
- 6.3% of characters with mental health conditions were found in PG-rated films.
- There were 0 characters with mental health conditions found in G-rated films.
Portrayal of positive behaviors to manage mental health:
- 25% of the characters depicted with a mental health condition are shown seeking therapy.
- 16% of characters depicted with a mental health condition are shown seeking treatment.
- More female characters are portrayed seeking therapy (76.2%) and/or taking treatment (76.9%) compared to their male counterparts.
Mental Health Stigma and Underrepresentation in Films:
- 48% of top-grossing films in 2022 featured 0 characters with a mental health condition.
- 2.1% out of the 3,815 characters that can verbally communicate in 2022 have a mental health condition.
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72.3% of characters depicted with a mental health condition are portrayed as perpetrators of violence.
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77.1% of characters depicted with a mental health condition are targets of violence.
- 78.3% of characters depicted with a mental health condition are disparaged (verbally or nonverbally belittled) in films.
- The top three insults used against characters portrayed with mental health conditions are “crazy,” variations of phrases that include “s***,” and “son of a b****.”
- 18% of characters with a mental health condition had themselves or their mental health struggles portrayed in a humorous manner.
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27% of characters with a mental health condition conceal their mental disorder from others, which is an increasing trend compared to 2016 and 2019.
- 40% of characters depicted with a mental health condition die by the end of the film.
- 54.5% of these deaths are violent.
- 7 characters die by suicide.
Sources:
https://assets.uscannenberg.org/docs/aii-mental-health-2023-06-28.pdf
