How Contemporary Disney Film Can Be Used for Mental Health Teaching in Schools: A Case Study of Inside Out (2015)

[摘要] Aims. Mental health disorders can be a burden on both patients andthe National Health Service. With the majority of lifetime mentalhealth problems emerging in childhood and the prevalence of childhood mental illness increasing, the need for effective, standardisedmental health education and fostering healthy socio-emotionaldevelopment is more important than ever before. The aim was toexplore if Inside Out provides an accurate representation of depression, and thus, can it be a useful resource for teaching mental healthand developing emotional awareness in the classroom?Methods. I explored a novel educational concept: ‘edutainment’,to see if it has use in state mental health education. This projectprovides a quantitative coding analysis and a qualitative artisticanalysis of a contemporary Disney film, Inside Out (2015), forThe International Classification of Diseases 10th Edition(ICD-10) depression symptoms. Depression has been chosen asan example of a mental health disorder as it is one of the commonest mental health problems and the leading cause of disabilityworldwide.Results. Inside Out provides an accurate representation of manyof the ICD-10 ‘core’ and ‘cognitive’ symptoms of depressionthrough both coding words and artistic means.Conclusion. Inside Out, alongside teacher-led discussion, couldbe useful in teaching children about depression in a relaxed buteducational way. Inside Out features themes that can helpchildren develop their emotional intelligence and reduce mentalhealth stigma. I highlight a need for standardised mental healtheducation and suggest that film may be an effective tool forlearning about common mental health conditions, such asdepression.

[学科分类] 计算机科学（综合）