https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4228-5529
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ABSTRACT
Background
Depression is a major threat to public health in China. Although many social determinants have been recognized as robust predictors of health outcomes, depression is still widely viewed and framed as a personal health issue that the affected individual is primarily responsible for when it comes to causes and solutions. Research shows that individualizing mental health responsibilities is directly related to stigma formation. While cross-cultural theory and prior research suggest the prevalence of contextual and societal attributions in China, the individualization of the Chinese culture in recent decades may alter the pattern of responsibility attributions for depression.
Method
How top Chinese media organizations and mental health institutions framed causal and problem-solving responsibilities for depression on Sina Weibo, a popular social networking site, were quantitatively content-analyzed by examining a total of 539 Weibo posts in terms of their featuring of personal and societal causes and solutions for depression.
Results
Both media organizations and mental health institutions primarily assigned depression responsibilities to the individual (vs. the society). State-controlled media organizations were more inclined to hold individuals responsible for fixing the problem than market-oriented media organizations. Compared to media organizations, mental health institutions paid less attention to depression causal responsibilities at both individual and societal levels.
Conclusion
Findings support a multi-vocal and balanced framing approach that integrates individual- and society-level attributions of causal and problem-solving responsibilities for depression, so as to help alleviate stigmas, identify structural remedies, and enhance efficacy in depression prevention and treatment at individual, community, and population levels.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 One example of revision made to the operational definitions is role model influence from celebrities as part of the macro-level instead of micro-level social environment, with the latter emphasizing influence from immediate social contacts.
2 All numbers in parentheses are kappa values at P < 0.001 measuring inter-coding reliability for the corresponding variables.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Yuan Zhang
Yuan Zhang (Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Westfield State University. Her primary research interests are in the areas of mental health communication and international communication, with a focus on the framing content and effects of health messages in various media and cultural contexts.
Yifeng Lu
Yifeng Lu (Ph.D., Peking University) is a lecturer at China University of Petroleum, Beijing (CUPB) and executive director of the Center for Global Energy Public Opinion at CUPB. His research interests include public relations, public opinion, and health communication studies in the context of new media.
Yan Jin
Yan Jin (Ph.D., University of Missouri-Columbia) is the Georgia Athletic Association Professor in Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Assistant Department Head of Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Georgia (UGA). She is also the Associate Director of UGA's Center for Health and Risk Communication. Her primary research programs are in the areas of crisis communication and strategic health risk communication.
Yubin Wang
Yubin Wang (Master of Industrial Economics, Northeastern University of Finance and Economics) is a lecturer at Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics in China.