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How mental illness is portrayed in children's television

A prospective study

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Science, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

Declaration of interest Funding was provided by a Faculty of Medicine and Health Science grant.

Correspondence: Raymond Nairn, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Science, Faculty of Medicine and Health Science, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92-019, Auckland, New Zealand

Background There are no published studies concerning the depiction of mental illness in children's television programmes.

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

Method 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 (X²=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.

Conclusion Young viewers are being socialised into stigmatising conceptions of mental illness.

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