How mental illness is portrayed in children's television. A prospective study.
BACKGROUND
There are no published studies concerning the depiction of mental illness in children's television programmes.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether mental illness was depicted in children's television.


METHODS
Sample of one complete week of children's television (57 hours, 50 minutes; 128 series episodes: 69 cartoon animations, 12 non-cartoon animations, 47 real life) provided for children under the age of 10 years. Disclosure analysis of portrayals of mental illness through repeated viewings identified patterns in the use of linguistic, semiotic and rhetorical resources.


RESULTS
Of the 128 episodes, 59 (46%) contained one or more references to mental illness, predominantly in cartoons (n = 47, 80%) compared with other episode types (chi 2 = 17.1, d.f. = 2, P < 0.05). Commonly occurring terms such as 'crazy' (n = 28), 'mad' (n = 19) and 'losing your mind' (n = 13) were employed to denote loss of control. The six consistently mentally ill characters were almost entirely devoid of admirable attributes.


CONCLUSIONS
Young viewers are being socialized into stigmatizing conceptions of mental illness.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Science, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
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Wilson
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Nairn
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Coverdale
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Panapa
D001294:Attitude to Health; D001519:Behavior; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D010551:Personality; D011287:Prejudice; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013690:Television; D014825:Vocabulary