Citation

Gaus Q, Jolliff A, Moreno MA. Comput. Hum. Behav. Rep. 2021; 3: e100050.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.chbr.2020.100050

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Around 20% of teens seeking health information about depression online watch YouTube videos to find the information. However, the content of depression-related YouTube videos remains understudied. Thus, the purpose of this study is to identify if DPAVs reference youth, suicidality, and depression treatments. DPAVs were identified using 4 search phrases on YouTube and included if they were longer than 2 ​min, from a unique creator, and had more than 5000 views. Videos were evaluated based on a codebook that included presence of youth references, suicidality references, and references to and advocacy for clinical treatments. The first twenty comments, sorted by "Top Comments," on each video were evaluated based on the above variables as well as the commenter's reaction to the video/creator. Inter-rater agreement was 88% for the video codebook and 97.96% for the comment codebook. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze frequencies, and 2-proportion z-tests were utilized for comparisons. 77 DPAVs and 1540 comments were evaluated. Youth and suicidality references were present in 50 videos (64.94%) each. Youth references were mentioned in 89 comments (5.78%) and suicidality in 113 comments (7.34%). Many videos (66.23%) referenced at least one clinical treatment. Fewer videos (36.36%) advocated for a clinical treatment or diagnostic testing. The results support that DPAVs often have youth-oriented content and address stigmatized and serious topics. These videos may be a relatively new way that youth with depression can seek support and insight about those topics. Few creators advocated for clinical treatment, raising concerns about the messages conveyed in DPAVs. Intervention efforts should include educating creators to be more knowledgeable about the treatment options available and encouraging providers to discuss this content with viewers and creators or create their own content.

Language: en

Keywords

Adolescents; Depression; DPAVs; Social media; Youth; YouTube