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.

Of the 3,815 speaking characters examined in 2022, only 2.1 percent were shown with a mental health condition, a percentage that’s barely changed since 2019 (1.5 percent) and 2016 (1.7 percent). What’s more, the number is in stark contrast to the population at large. More than one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness, according to NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health.

In 2022, nearly half of the films examined (48 percent) did not feature a single character with a mental health condition, again only a slight change from 2016 (52 percent) and 2019 (55 percent). Additionally, 34 percent of the most recent films studied showcased only a single character with a mental health condition.

More than half of characters with mental health conditions (57 percent) were in R-rated films, while 36.7 percent were in films rated PG-13, and 6.3 percent in films rated PG. Similar to 2019, no G-rated films depicted any characters experiencing a mental health illness.

Addiction, mood disorders, anxiety/PTSD and suicide were the most commonly depicted mental health conditions this past year.

Regarding representation, men (50.6 percent) and women (49.4 percent) depicted with mental health conditions were on par. The majority of characters with a mental health condition were White (76.3 percent) and few were from underrepresented racial and/or ethnic groups (23.8 percent). In the 100 films only seven LGBT-identified characters were shown with a mental health condition, and the report concludes teen mental health does not translate to popular film.

The number of characters with a mental health condition that were teens decreased to 6 percent in 2022 from 7 percent in 2016. This stands in contrast to the 29 percent of U.S. teens who experienced poor mental health in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Mental health is stigmatized and trivialized in film, the report finds, with a surge in the percentage of characters with a mental health condition shown in context with “Disparagement” from 47 percent in 2016 to 78 percent in 2022. Other depictions included “Humor” and “Concealment.”

And few help-seeking behaviors were shown on screen. Of the 83 characters depicted with a mental health condition, 25 percent were shown in therapy in 2022, compared with 30 percent in 2019 and 22 percent in 2016; and 16 percent were shown in treatment, compared with 5 percent in 2016 and 13 percent in 2019.

The report also offers several solutions to increase the frequency and portrayal of mental health stories on screen. One is for filmmakers to consult the Mental Health Media Guide, a resource developed by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative in concert with MTV Entertainment Group and mental health practitioners that is housed at the Mental Health Storytelling Initiative. Other suggestions include best practices to employ during production and filming, ways to protect cast and crew, and guidelines for marketing and exhibition.