Learn after reading: effects of news framing and responsibility attribution on Chinese college students’ perceived efficacy in identifying others and themselves with depression

ABSTRACT

Depression is now one of the most severe public health threats in China and among Chinese college students. To examine the effects of depression news coverage on Chinese college students’ mental health literacy, focusing on their perceived efficacy in recognizing depression symptoms, a 2 (news framing: episodic vs. thematic) × 2 (responsibility attribution: individual vs. societal) × 2 (gender: female vs. male) between-subjects experiment was conducted among 187 students at a large research university in China. The key findings, after controlling for depression issue involvement, include: (1) the main effects of attribution on perceived efficacy in identifying others (friends and family members) with depression; (2) the association between gender and perceived efficacy in identifying family members with depression; and (3) the three-way interactions on how framing, attribution, and gender jointly affect not only perceived efficacy in identifying others but also themselves with depression. These findings provide insights on how depression news coverage can help enhance mental health literacy and build stronger depression symptom resilience among Chinese college students. Implications for health journalists and public health communication professionals in China are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Depression
• mental health literacy
• framing
• responsibility attribution
• health communication
• China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Yan Jin (Ph.D., University of Missouri-Columbia) is an Associate Professor of Public Relations at the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Her research focuses on crisis communication, social media, and strategic health risk communication.

Yuan Zhang (Ph.D., University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill) is an Assistant Professor teaching journalism in the Department of Communication at Westfield State University. Her research interests include mental health communication, media framing and international communication.

Yen-I Lee (M.A., University of Northern Colorado) is a doctoral student at the Department of Advertising and Public Relations in the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Her research focuses on emotional appeal on health risk/crisis communication, strategic health messages, technology and cultural psychology on health risk/crisis communication.

Yunbing Tang (Ph.D., Fudan University) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Art and Design at the Fudan University, P. R. China. Her research focuses on visual communication.