Boosting Adolescent Mental Health Literacy Through Animated Video Storytelling

Maya Adam

 

This page was developed for the NIH SciEd 2023 Conference, the SEPA annual meeting.

Summary of Specific Aims

Our hypothesis is that our short, animated mental health literacy video series, (co-created and piloted with adolescents) and delivered informally via social media, will boost the mental health literacy of adolescents, including those from diverse racial and ethnic groups. We also hypothesize that these videos will enhance engagement with formal, school-based programs focused on teaching the science behind stress and coping.

We are in the midst of an adolescent mental health crisis and the CDC warns that the number of adolescents reporting poor mental health is increasing. Boosting mental health literacy among US adolescents is an urgent priority, especially for minority groups. Key solutions lie in increasing the accessibility of mental health literacy messages and delivering them to adolescents on the platforms where they seek information. As teens spend more time than ever before consuming short video content on social media, health educators have an opportunity to use social media to boost mental health literacy in this age group.

Aims of the current proposal:

Research Findings to Date

Our prior research on short, animated storytelling (SAS), has allowed us to document rapid, viral spread of our SAS videos to more than 15 million views on social media. We also observed significant increases in health knowledge & behaviors as well as high voluntary engagement.

Short, animated storytelling videos are a novel, promising approach to the rapid dissemination of accessible health information and could be used to boost public health literacy across diverse demographics.

 

Explore Animated Videos

Learn More: Stanford Global Child Health Media Initiative

Published Research

Vandormael A, Adam M, Greuel M, Gates J, Favaretti C, Hachaturyan V, Bärnighausen T. The Effect of a Wordless, Animated, Social Media Video Intervention on COVID-19 Prevention: Online Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR public health and surveillance. 2021 Jul 27;7(7):e29060.

Adam M, McMahon SA, Prober C, Bärnighausen T. Human-Centered Design of Video-Based Health Education: An Iterative, Collaborative, Community-Based Approach. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 2019;21(1):e12128.!

Favaretti C, Vandormael A, Hachaturyan V, Greuel M, Gates J, Adam M, Bärnighausen T. Participant Engagement and Reactance to a Short, Animated Video About Added Sugars: A Web-based Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2021 Sep 23. (doi: 10.2196/29669)

Chen, S., Forster, S., Yang, J., Yu, F., Jiao, L., Gates, J., ... & Adam, M. (2022). Animated, video entertainment-education to improve vaccine confidence globally during the COVID-19 pandemic: an online randomized controlled experiment with 24,000 participants. Trials, 23(1), 1-10

Favaretti C, Vandormael A, Hachaturyan V, Greuel M, Gates J, Adam M, Bärnighausen T. Participant Engagement and Reactance to a Short, Animated Video About Added Sugars: A Web-based Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2021 Sep 23. (doi: 10.2196/29669) 

Adam M, Chase RP, McMahon SA, Kuhnert KL, Johnston J, Ward V, Prober C, Bärnighausen T. Design preferences for global scale: a mixed-methods study of “glocalization” of an animated, video-based health communication intervention. BMC public health. 2021 Dec;21(1):1-2.

Adam M, Bärnighausen T, McMahon SA, Design for extreme scalability: A wordless, globally scalable COVID-19 prevention animation for rapid public health communication. Journal of Global Health. 2020; 10.

Vandormael A, Adam M, Greuel M, Gates J, Favaretti C, Hachaturyan V, Bärnighausen T. The Effect of a Wordless, Animated, Social Media Video Intervention on COVID-19 Prevention: Online Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR public health and surveillance. 2021 Jul 27;7(7):e29060.