Beato Ana, da Costa Leonor Pereira, Carvalho Ana, Albuquerque Sara, Santos Isabel
HEI-Lab: Digital Human-Environment Interaction Labs, Lusófona University, Lisbon, Portugal.
PLoS One. 2024 Dec 31;19(12):e0314994. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0314994. eCollection 2024.
The stigma surrounding mental health remains a significant barrier to help-seeking and well-being in youth populations. The invisibility of mental health issues highlights the critical need for improved knowledge and stigma reduction, underscoring the urgency of tackling this issue. Arts-based interventions have shown promise in addressing stigma, yet comprehensive longitudinal studies in community settings are limited. This research evaluates the "WeARTolerance'' arts-based program in reducing mental health stigma among diverse youths. The program integrated psychoeducational and creative activities (e.g., visual arts, cinema, music, and theatre) to explore mental health themes, with 125 teenagers and young adult participants (M = 13.70; SD = 2.06). The present mixed-method study was split into two phases with complementary objectives: 1) evaluate quantitatively the program's impact in reducing social stigma and related outcomes; 2) explore in-depth qualitative feedback about the program. For the first phase, reliable self-report questionnaires were used to measure mental health knowledge, social stigma, intergroup anxiety, and social distance in pre-, post-, and 6-month follow-up periods. Participants' age and past psychiatric issues were fixed factors with random intercepts, and mixed effects models were used to analyze the attitudinal outcomes across time. In the second phase of this validation, nine teenagers aged between 12 and 16 participated in two focus groups conducted three months after the program. Its contents underwent thorough analysis using content analysis techniques. The quantitative results from Phase 1 demonstrated a decreasing trend in all primary outcomes. In phase 2, participants acknowledged the activities' relevance, reported overall satisfaction with the program, and showed great enthusiasm and willingness to learn more. Arts-based interventions like "WeARTolerance" are valuable for challenging stigma and fostering understanding in youth populations and provide an alternative and creative way to increase mental health literacy. The study proposes a program to reduce youth mental health stigma through arts-based elements, early intervention, and psychoeducation, involving collaborations between professionals and artists to promote youth engagement. Future studies should include indirect social contact and randomized controlled interventions.
围绕心理健康的污名仍然是青年群体寻求帮助和实现幸福的重大障碍。心理健康问题的隐匿性凸显了提高认识和减少污名的迫切需求，突出了解决这一问题的紧迫性。基于艺术的干预措施在消除污名方面已显示出前景，但社区环境中的全面纵向研究有限。本研究评估了 “我们的宽容” 这一基于艺术的项目在减少不同青年群体心理健康污名方面的效果。该项目整合了心理教育和创意活动（如视觉艺术、电影、音乐和戏剧）来探讨心理健康主题，共有125名青少年和青年参与者（M = 13.70；SD = 2.06）。本混合方法研究分为两个阶段，目标相辅相成：1）定量评估该项目在减少社会污名及相关结果方面的影响；2）深入探索关于该项目的定性反馈。在第一阶段，使用可靠的自我报告问卷在项目前、后以及6个月随访期测量心理健康知识、社会污名、群体间焦虑和社会距离。参与者的年龄和过去的精神疾病问题为固定因素并带有随机截距，使用混合效应模型分析不同时间的态度结果。在该验证的第二阶段，9名年龄在12至16岁之间的青少年在项目结束三个月后参加了两个焦点小组。使用内容分析技术对其内容进行了深入分析。第一阶段的定量结果显示所有主要结果均呈下降趋势。在第二阶段，参与者认可活动的相关性，对该项目总体满意，并表现出极大的热情和意愿去了解更多。像 “我们的宽容” 这样基于艺术的干预措施对于挑战污名和促进青年群体的理解很有价值，并提供了一种增加心理健康素养的替代且富有创意的方式。该研究提出了一个通过基于艺术的元素、早期干预和心理教育来减少青年心理健康污名的项目，涉及专业人员和艺术家之间的合作以促进青年参与。未来研究应纳入间接社会接触和随机对照干预。
