Depression attribution and treatment optimism on TikTok and YouTube Shorts

This study presents a quantitative content analysis of 205 TikTok and YouTube Shorts videos, exploring how depression is explicitly and implicitly attributed. Using attribution theory, videos were coded for how the cause of depression was framed in terms of locus of causality, controllability, and stability. Results found videos to most portray depression as external, controllable, and unstable (i.e., temporary), although few explicitly named a cause, such as biological factors. Men were more likely than women to frame depression as internal, but no other differences were observed between attribution dimensions and user gender, race/ethnicity, treatment mentions, or engagement metrics.