TY - JOUR

T1 - Perceptions of a short animated film on adverse childhood experiences: a mixed methods evaluation

AU - Ford, Kat

AU - Bellis, Mark A.

AU - Isherwood, Kate

AU - Hughes, Karen

N1 - © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

PY - 2021/8/17

Y1 - 2021/8/17

N2 - Objectives An evaluation of a short animated film on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) to explore attitudes and sentiment towards the film including, for a subsample of professionals, associations between attitudes andpersonal experience of ACEs.Design Mixed-method exploratory design.Setting Professionals and the general public.Participants A short online survey with 239 professionals. Interaction and user sentiment towards with the film on social media (Twitter, YouTube).Primary and secondary outcome measures Survey: participants’ attitudes towards the film including feelings invoked, learning gained and ACE count prevalence. Twitter user and YouTube viewer sentiment (positive, negative orneutral) and interaction (likes, retweets or comments) with the film.Results Attitudes to the film were positive: 94.1% and 93.7%, respectively, agreed that it provided a helpful explanation of ACEs and trusted that the film was credible. Of those who reported ACE exposure, 88.9% agreed thatthose with ACEs would benefit from watching the film. Despite 50.6% reporting that the film had made them feel sad or upset, the majority (66.4%) reported they found the film hopeful or encouraging. Across 358 publicly availabletweets from 313 users, 39.1% of tweets expressed positive sentiment, with only 1.4% negative (59.5% neutral). However, there was no association between tweet sentiment and interaction. Thirteen YouTube versions of the film received 171 812 views, 97.3% (n=889/914) ratings were positive (ie, ‘thumbs up’).Conclusions Despite being emotionally arousing, many professionals reflected positive impacts of the film including a perceived increased ability to discuss ACEs. Public sentiment demonstrated a positive reaction to and acceptability of the film. Understanding the professional and public response to materials developed to increase ACE awareness, such as the film explored here, isimportant given the growing number of international movements which seek to increase ACE awareness, prevent ACEs and mitigate their lifelong negative effects.

AB - Objectives An evaluation of a short animated film on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) to explore attitudes and sentiment towards the film including, for a subsample of professionals, associations between attitudes andpersonal experience of ACEs.Design Mixed-method exploratory design.Setting Professionals and the general public.Participants A short online survey with 239 professionals. Interaction and user sentiment towards with the film on social media (Twitter, YouTube).Primary and secondary outcome measures Survey: participants’ attitudes towards the film including feelings invoked, learning gained and ACE count prevalence. Twitter user and YouTube viewer sentiment (positive, negative orneutral) and interaction (likes, retweets or comments) with the film.Results Attitudes to the film were positive: 94.1% and 93.7%, respectively, agreed that it provided a helpful explanation of ACEs and trusted that the film was credible. Of those who reported ACE exposure, 88.9% agreed thatthose with ACEs would benefit from watching the film. Despite 50.6% reporting that the film had made them feel sad or upset, the majority (66.4%) reported they found the film hopeful or encouraging. Across 358 publicly availabletweets from 313 users, 39.1% of tweets expressed positive sentiment, with only 1.4% negative (59.5% neutral). However, there was no association between tweet sentiment and interaction. Thirteen YouTube versions of the film received 171 812 views, 97.3% (n=889/914) ratings were positive (ie, ‘thumbs up’).Conclusions Despite being emotionally arousing, many professionals reflected positive impacts of the film including a perceived increased ability to discuss ACEs. Public sentiment demonstrated a positive reaction to and acceptability of the film. Understanding the professional and public response to materials developed to increase ACE awareness, such as the film explored here, isimportant given the growing number of international movements which seek to increase ACE awareness, prevent ACEs and mitigate their lifelong negative effects.

KW - Emotions

KW - Humans

KW - Motion Pictures

KW - Perception

KW - Social Media

U2 - 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050398

DO - 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050398

M3 - Article

C2 - 34404714

VL - 11

JO - BMJ Open

JF - BMJ Open

SN - 2044-6055

IS - 8

M1 - e050398

ER -