New Study: Mental Health Conditions Largely Absent, Distorted In Popular Film

Mental health storytelling is largely absent from popular film and when it is included often is stigmatized and trivialized, with few help-seeking behaviors depicted.

These are the toplines from a new study from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, the third in a series that follows reports in 2016 and 2019. The research, supported by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, examines the prevalence and portrayals of mental health conditions across the 100 top-grossing films in the U.S. in 2022 and compares data to previous findings…