Date of Award
Summer 8-2020
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department/Program
Forensic Mental Health Counseling
Language
English
First Advisor or Mentor
Philip T. Yanos
Second Reader
Peggilee Wupperman
Third Advisor
Shanah Segal
Abstract
Research indicates that media can have both negative and positive impacts on mental health stigma and self-stigma. No studies, to our knowledge, have examined the impact of audio media representation (podcasts) on mental health stigma. Our study therefore examines the effects that both positive and negative portrayals of mental illness in a news podcast would have on mental health stigma. We hypothesized that participants assigned to podcast conditions that primed for mental illness would lead participants to attribute an incident to mental illness. Additionally, we hypothesized that listening to a podcast that speaks negatively about individuals with mental illnesses would be correlated with an increase in mental health stigma. Similarly, we hypothesized that listening to a news podcast that speaks positively about individuals with mental illnesses would be associated with a decrease in mental health stigma among participants. Undergraduate students (n = 169) were randomly assigned to one of four podcast conditions. Each condition had identical scripts describing a store robbery, manipulating if mental illness was disclosed and if it was the robber or the Good Samaritan that had the mental illness. Study findings strongly support the first hypothesis, that placing participants in a podcast condition that primed for mental illness leads participants to attribute the incident to mental illness. We did not find a significant relationship between podcast conditions and an increase or decrease in self-reported mental health stigma or self-stigma. Limitations of the study are addressed and authors conclude that additional research using audio interventions is needed to better understand its effect on mental health stigma.
Recommended Citation
Dure, Sarah N., "The Effects of Podcasts on Mental Health Stigma" (2020). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/jj_etds/180
