April 7-9, 2022 • Hyatt Regency • Lexington, KY
Communication Strategies to Promote Comprehensive Well-being
Communication Strategies to Promote Comprehensive Well-being
Abstract: Examining the Context of Mental Health During COVID-19 through a Framing Analysis of Popular Health Magazines
Awareness and concern around mental health had been increasing prior to the start of the pandemic, and COVID-19 has served as a catalyst for increased stress and new anxiety. A systematic review examining the impact of the pandemic on mental health found symptoms of depression and anxiety, among other psychological symptoms, reported across several countries (Xiong et al., 2020). A recent report from the American Psychological Association (APA) (2020) found COVID-19 to be “a significant source of stress” for 78% of Americans (p. 2). With the continuing emergence of new virus strains comes more uncertainty, and individuals may rely on health information for psychosocial support from a variety of sources. One of those sources may be health magazines, some of which have a large readership in both online and print formats. Considering the reach and popularity of some health and fitness magazines, it is particularly important to know what information about mental health is being provided to readers during the pandemic and to better understand the context of the messaging within these articles. Though still in its initial stages, this study aims to identify the frames used in discussing mental health across three popular magazines throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a framing analysis using a coding approach focused on the elements of definition, cause identification, judgements, and remedies around particular problems or issues (Entman, 1993), this research seeks to understand the extent to which mental health has been discussed across the selected magazines, how this topic has been framed since the beginning of the pandemic, and to what extent health-promoting strategies are discussed. Using key search terms pertaining to the topic of mental health, articles were selected through a university library online database. Key word and phrase search included both the title and body of articles, and a subset of these was selected for coding by the first and second author to gather preliminary findings. The time period included articles from April, 2020 through April, 2021. Individual articles were the units of analysis. An initial coding sheet was developed by the first author, and further refining is anticipated for the development of the final code book for the remainder of coding. A total of 174 articles were generated through the key term search, and a subset of approximately 17 percent were selected for initial coding. Preliminary findings indicate that mental health appears to be a topic of discussion across each of the magazines and has been identified in over half of those coded thus far. Among these, depression and anxiety were most prominent, with the more general topic of stress coming in second. Preliminary findings also revealed that most articles included efforts to promote general well-being and provided strategies for addressing mental health. Next steps will include refinement of the code book and conducting further analysis of the presenting frames within the remaining articles, and the anticipated timeline for completion is February, 2022.