USC

What Hollywood is missing: The kids aren’t alright.

New research from the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative highlights a lack of representation of young people living with mental health conditions.

Photo of Stacy L. Smith, founder of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative.
Stacy L. Smith, founder of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. (Photo courtesy of Stacy L. Smith)

Young people who live with mental health conditions are vastly underrepresented in popular films, according to a new research brief by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative and its founder, Dr. Stacy L. Smith.

Just 1.4% of children and teenage characters live with mental health conditions; in the real world almost 22% of American children and teens do, according to the 17-page research brief, “The Kids Are Not Alright,” released Wednesday.

“Young people today face profound challenges and stressors, exacerbated by the political and cultural environment they live in, yet entertainment virtually ignores this aspect of childhood and adolescence,” Smith said.

The study examined 1,688 children and teenage characters across the 300 top-grossing films at three year intervals — 2016, 2019 and 2022.

The brief also reported a general lack of diversity in those films. Out of the 23 children portrayed with mental health conditions, just six were from underrepresented racial or ethnic groups. Two-thirds of the characters with mental health conditions were girls.

The gap between the film world depictions and reality can lead to alienation among viewers who have experienced mental health challenges.

“When we do have public people talk about their mental health … it’s important that there’s a diversity of people, that people are able to share a bit of their background so everybody can see themselves,” said USC’s Chief Health Officer, Dr. Sarah Van Orman.

The research brief also found that young people with mental health conditions were stigmatized, disparaged or violent.

Nearly three in five children and teenagers in these films are disparaged. They received labels including “demon,” “horrible,” “backstabbing liar,” and “loser.”

Only white characters in the films received therapy. More than four in five instances of treatment took place in institutions, such as psychiatric wards.

Van Orman said students can take care of their mental health by getting enough quality sleep and exercising regularly.

“There is still a lot of stigma with mental health,” Van Orman said. “We still have a lot of work to do.”