Tag / Stigma

by Lu Tang

Sharing Experiences of Depression on Douyin

Social media provides a new platform for the public, patients, and health professionals to communicate about health and illness and potentially improve health outcomes. One specific type of social media influencers extensively shares their experiences with health, fitness, and illness with their followers through autobiographic videos or posts.

Autobiographical accounts on social media could play an essential role in shaping the public’s understanding of illnesses and dispelling illness-related stigma.

In this study, we examined how people living with depression describe their illness experiences on Douyin, China’s leading video-sharing platform. Here are some of the main findings:

  • Most videos were created by young women who have lived with the illness for over three years.
  • The top three topics were patient psychology, experience sharing, and knowledge and medical advice.
  • These videos provided an overall non-stigmatizing portrayal of depression, with more than 80% of the influencers using challenge cues.
  • However, stigma cues contributed to the virality of the videos. In other words, highly negative videos adopting stereotyping descriptions of depression are more likely to generate more likes and comments.

Li, J., Tang, L., & Pu, Y. (2023). My story of depression: A content analysis of autobiographic videos on Douyin. Health Communication. DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2023.2191887 [Full text]

by Lu Tang

The Stigmatization of Suicide

Image by wirestock on Freepik

Suicide is the leading cause of death among people between 14 and 35 years in China. The suicide rate of adolescents in China is 1.5 times higher than the world average, with 16.1% of Chinese adolescents ranged from 10-19 years reporting suicide ideation and 2.94% reporting suicide attempts in the last year. Among college students, 10.7% reported suicidal ideation, and 2.8% reported suicidal attempts. The suicide rate of the 14–35-year-old group in rural areas is twice that in cities.

Suicide stigma is a mark or stereotype associated with suicide. For example, people with suicidal ideation/behaviors are sometimes seen as attention-seeking or “crazy”. Suicide stigma leads to prejudice and discrimination and is a significant barrier to effective suicide prevention since such stigma hinders people’s help-seeking behaviors.

We studied how suicide stigma is communicatively constructed by examining the stories told by college students in China. Here are some of the main findings:

  • Our participants portray those who attempt or die by suicide as “familiar strangers” through the practice of othering. Participants believe that those who have suicidal ideation/behaviors are fundamentally different from themselves in terms of personality and circumstances. People who attempt or die of suicide are usually described as irresponsible, fragile, impulsive, or attention-seeking.
  • Taking one’s own life is mostly framed as a betrayal of one’s parents and family.
  • Finally, subtle differences in the suicide stigma of people of different ages and gender were also revealed. Women’s suicides are less likely to be taken seriously.

Zou, W., Tang, L., & Bie, B. (2022) The stigmatization of suicide: A study of stories told by college students in China. Death Studies, 46(9): 2035-2045. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2021.1958396 [Full Text]