Social media and lifestyles in youth mental health promotion

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (10) ◽  
pp. 664-665 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann DeSmet
2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristi Calder ◽  
Lucy D’Aeth ◽  
Sue Turner ◽  
Annabel Begg ◽  
Ekant Veer ◽  
...  

Summary The All Right? campaign was developed as a mental health promotion campaign following the 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquakes. One aspect of the overall campaign was the utilisation of social media as a means of promoting wellbeing messages. This research evaluates the use of the All Right? Facebook page as a means of promoting wellbeing after a major natural disaster. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to gather data about the social media component of the All Right? campaign. Findings indicate that the All Right? Facebook page has become a valued source of consistent wellbeing tips and advice -‘the place that I go’. Wellbeing reminders posted on the page were especially valued following earthquake aftershocks. High proportions of respondents to a survey (n = 212) linked from the All Right? Facebook page agreed that the page was helpful (98%), gave people ideas of things that they can do to help themselves (96%), and made people think about their wellbeing (93%). Over four fifths (85%) of respondents had done activities as a result of what they saw on the All Right? Facebook page. Success factors for the Facebook page often mirrored those for the campaign itself, including: local research to inform the use of appropriate language for translating evidence-based wellbeing messages into a local setting; not being marketed as a government message; and effectively combining public health and communications expertise. Success factors specific to the Facebook page included: regular posts with a focus on issues that affect everyone in Canterbury post-disaster; timely posts, especially immediately following aftershocks; a consistent tone for the All Right? Facebook page; and balancing wellbeing facts and tips with other content that was relevant to the Canterbury population. The overall success of the All Right? Facebook page was reliant on being part of a trusted population-wide mental health promotion campaign.


2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 408-420
Author(s):  
Margaret McAllister ◽  
Bruce Allen Knight ◽  
Christine Handley ◽  
Cath Withyman ◽  
Jessica Dawkins ◽  
...  

Sexes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 483-494
Author(s):  
Pradeep Banandur ◽  
Swati Shahane ◽  
Sathya Velu ◽  
Sathrajith Bhargav ◽  
Aditi Thakkar ◽  
...  

Promoting positive identity and seeking early support for gender, sex and sexuality (GSS) issues among youth is vital. Understanding and addressing factors associated withGSS among them is critical. We assessed four-year case records (January 2017–December 2020) of all first visit youth mental health promotion clinic (YMHPC) clients (15–35 years) for factors associated with GSS issues in Karnataka. Overall, prevalence of GSS issues was 1.8% (189/10,340). Increased risk of GSS issues was observed among clients reporting suicidality (AOR = 4.27, 95% CI = 2.70–6.74) and relationship issues (AOR = 3.63, 95% CI = 2.36–5.57), followed by issues of safety (AOR = 2.56, 95% CI = 1.72–3.81), personality (AOR = 2.48, 95% CI = 1.60–3.85), health and lifestyle (AOR = 2.27, 95% CI = 1.77–4.19), smokers (AOR = 2.30, 95% CI = 1.24–4.27), and those who felt depressed (AOR = 2.10, 95% CI = 1.43–3.09) and worthless (AOR = 2.08, 95% CI = 1.28–3.39). Clients aged 21–25 years (AOR = 1.80,95% CI = 1.27–2.54), male (AOR = 1.72, 95% CI = 1.20–2.46) and who had been married (AOR = 2.32, 95% CI = 1.51–3.57) had a higher risk of GSS issues than those aged 15–20 years and other counterparts, respectively. Clients who drank alcohol (AOR = 0.49, 95% CI = 0.30–0.81) had reduced risk of GSS issues. The findings re-iterate the importance of early recognition of factors (essential precursors) of GSS issues among youth. The study highlights the importance of promoting awareness and improving primordial prevention of possible GSS issues in later life. This study has important implications on youth mental health promotion programs, especially in countries like India.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hailemariam Mamo Hassen ◽  
Manas Ranjan Behera ◽  
Pratap Kumar Jena ◽  
Sudhir Kumar Satpathy

Abstract Background: Studies showed Ethiopian adolescents have lower knowledge and awareness about resilient and risk factors and preventive methods of mental health problems that increases mental health promotion and prevention gap. Addressing this gap in school settings using technology assisted mental health promotion platforms could help improve mental health literacy level. Therefore, evaluating effectiveness outcomes of guided social media intervention to improve mental health literacy of school adolescents is convenient issue. Methods: Quantitative and quasi-experimental study will be used among urban school adolescent in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia. Following pretest measure among adolescents who have smart phones or social media access and age > 15 years old, participants will be assigned by regression discontinuity design as good as random and then mental health literacy module will be delivered through face book/telegram group to be created for about four weeks and posttest will be done after lapse of a week. Control group will receive posts on effective academic studying skills. Adapted and tested questionnaire in convenient local languages along with English version will be used. Inferential statistics will be applied with significance level of p<0.05. Informed voluntary consent will be obtained from participants, their parents/guardians and school directors. Ethical approval is already obtained.Discussion: Mental health promotion in school settings most importantly using technology assisted mental health promotion platforms supposed to be cost-effective, accessible, acceptable, adoptable, appropriate, feasible, reliable, scalable and sustainable approach helping tailor mental health literacy focused mental health first aid practices still deficient and new for Ethiopia. The study will test the hypothesis whether social media is effective channel of intervention in improving mental health literacy level of urban school adolescents.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pradeep Banandur ◽  
Lavanya Garady ◽  
Mutharaju Arelingaiah ◽  
Gururaj Gopalkrishna ◽  
Jyoti M Koujageri ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Yuva Spandana is a unique community based Youth Mental Health Promotion program implemented across Karnataka. This program provides mental health promotion services like guidance and referral services for any issues related to youth. These services are provided through Youth Guidance centres established within every district stadium across Karnataka. We assessed factors affecting beneficiary attendance to these guidance centres across Karnataka. Methods: A conceptual framework was developed to understand the factors affecting beneficiary attendance through stakeholder consultation. First time beneficiaries attending guidance centres between 1st January 2017 and 31st December 2018 across 30 districts of Karnataka were considered study subjects. Requisite data were drawn from the computerized management information system (CMIS) specifically developed for the program. Multivariate Linear Regression was performed with factors affecting beneficiary attendance as outcome and a host of hypothesized variables within the conceptual framework as potential exposures that contribute towards beneficiary attendance. All variables significantly associated with outcome (p<0.10) in univariate and which changed the β-coefficient of atleast one preceding variable by 10% was retained in the multivariate model. Results: For every sensitization program where more than one issue was addressed, the beneficiary attendance increased by 84% (β =0.84; 95% CI=0.53-1.15). Reaching out to parent beneficiaries through sensitisation programs, increased beneficiary attendance at YSK by 79% (β =0.79; 95% CI=0.20-1.37). Referring clients to resource mapped organisations, significantly increased beneficiary attendance by 81% (β =0.81; 95% CI=0.34-1.28). For every percentage increase in reminder calls made to probable beneficiaries who sought support following a sensitization programme, beneficiary attendance increased by 2.18 times (β =2.18; 95% CI=0.52-3.83). Availability of internet connectivity at these guidance centres in 2017, increased beneficiary attendance by 18 times (β =18.00; 95% CI=5.86-30.13). Conclusions: This study provides important inputs towards increasing beneficiary attendance towards large scale youth mental health promotion programs. Addressing more than one issue during sensitisation programs among beneficiaries; conducting sensitization programs among parent groups; making reminder calls to beneficiaries who requested support through feedback forms to fix appointment at guidance centres; providing referrals to beneficiaries to seek services at resource mapped individuals/organizations and ensuring availability of internet in guidance centres increases beneficiary attendance.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kofoworola DA Williams ◽  
Sharyn A Dougherty ◽  
Emily G Lattie ◽  
Jeanine PD Guidry ◽  
Kellie E Carlyle

BACKGROUND From a public health perspective, social media may be a viable avenue to promote mental health among Black men. As a digital tool, social media is widely accessible and increasingly used to challenge societal standards and misrepresentations of marginalized populations in the media. Social media users utilize hashtags and visual, text-based imagery to challenge misrepresentations, garner social support, and discuss a variety of health issues. OBJECTIVE This study presents a content analysis of hashtags about Black men and examines how visual and text-based social media messages can be used to present lived experiences of a marginalized population, as well as how the public engages with these posts. METHODS Posts containing #theblackmancan and #blackboyjoy hashtags were extracted from Instagram during Spring 2019. All posts were analyzed by two independent coders using a codebook. Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) and formative literature were used to guide analyses of how these posts related to attitudes, beliefs, and values associated with race, gender, and social support. RESULTS Of the 500 posts extracted, most were image-based (73.6%). 54.4% were posted by an individual and 27% by a community organization. 53.8% were posted by individuals from Black populations. 35.4% of posts contained images of only males. Posts depicted images of Black men as fathers (20%) and Black men being celebrated (20.2%) and expressing joy (43.4%). Posts (25.4%) also depicted Black men in relation to gender atypical behavior, such as caring for children. Variables related to education and restrictive affection showed up much less. Similarly, variables associated with SCT, such as self-efficacy (7.8%), collective efficacy (10%) and emotional support (10.2%) were rarely present in posts. Engagement via likes (Mdn = 1671, P<.001), comments (P<.001) and views (P<.001) for posts containing #theblackmancan were significantly higher compared to #blackboyjoy (Mdn = 140). Posts containing elements of celebrating Black men (P<.001) and gender atypical behavior (P<.001) had significantly higher engagement, as well. There were also significantly higher levels of engagement (P=.003) for posts containing informational support. CONCLUSIONS Hashtags #blackboyjoy and #theblackmancan promote positive user-generated visual and text-based content on Instagram and promote positive interactions among Black and diverse communities. Future research should examine the relevance of utilizing these, and other, hashtags in mental health promotion. Interventional efforts should investigate the potential for such imagery to serve as culturally relevant design elements for prevention efforts geared towards mental health promotion and prevention among minority men.


Author(s):  
Shari Laliberte ◽  
Colleen Varcoe

Abstract Understanding how socio-economic processes inter-relate with young people’s mental health is important to inform the development of responsive mental health promotion initiatives. Thirty diverse Canadian young people were engaged within a process of social praxis, underpinned by a historical-dialectical ontological perspective, to explore the inter-relation among socio-economic processes and youth mental health and implications for mental health promotion initiatives. Findings show several inter-related contradictory processes within two overarching contradictory dynamics that Canadian youth are navigating as they seek to realize their mental health needs. The first overarching contradictory dynamic is between monetized, private, individualistic, profit-oriented economic processes and young people’s need for resources, freedom and time, and inclusive social spaces to enable their mental health needs. Participants’ descriptions of their approaches to seeking to realize their mental health needs in this context reflects a second inter-related overarching contradiction between communal and individual approaches to enabling young people’s mental health needs. In this context, young people are oriented inward to meet their mental health needs at the individual and inter-personal level, despite the crucial role of socio-economic processes to enabling their mental health needs. Despite varied access to resources, all participants struggled to balance meeting their mental health needs. Implications of these findings entail the need to focus on promoting synergistic relations among young people and socio-economic processes whereby enabling universal access to resources for young people’s survival, physical health and comfort is foundational to multi-level mental health promotion initiatives.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Jenkins ◽  
Rebecca Haines-Saah ◽  
Liza McGuinness ◽  
Saima Hirani ◽  
Noah Boakye-Yiadom ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Mental health challenges are a leading health concern for youth globally, requiring a comprehensive approach incorporating promotion, prevention and treatment within a healthy public policy framework. However, the broad enactment of this vision has yet to be realized. Further, mental health promotion evidence specific to youth is still emerging and has not yet focused at a policy level. This is a critical gap, as policy is a key mental health promotion lever that can alter the social and structural conditions that contribute to shaping youth mental health outcomes for all youth, across the full spectrum of need. Responsive to this research and intervention priority, our prototype study intervention – the Agenda Gap – is comprised of an innovative, multi-media engagement intervention, developed in collaboration with youth. This intervention aims to equip youth and build capacity for them to lead meaningful policy change reflective of the mental health needs of diverse communities of youth, including those who experience structural vulnerability and who would not typically have had their voice represented in policymaking processes. Methods: This study will use a multiple case study design and mixed methods grounded in a realist approach and will be conducted in three sites across two Canadian provinces (British Columbia and Alberta). In an earlier phase of this research, we collaboratively designed the prototype intervention with youth, community and policy partners. In this phase of the study, the intervention will be implemented and further tested with new groups of youth collaborators (n=10-15/site). Outcome data will be collected through realist qualitative interviews, validated questionnaires (i.e., Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM-12), General Self-Efficacy (GSE) Scale, and the Critical Consiousness Scale (CCS)) and additional survey items developed by our study team. Analysis will focus on identification of key context-mechanism-outcome configurations to provide comprehensive insights into how this intervention works, for whom, and in what context. Discussion: This study is unique in its “upstream” focus on youth-engaged policymaking as a tool for improving the social and structural conditions that influence youth mental health across socioecological levels. Through the implementation and testing of the Agenda Gap intervention with diverse youth, this study will contribute to the evidence base on youth-engaged policymaking as a novel and innovative, mental health promotion strategy.


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