Innovating Mental Health Programming: Qualitatively Modeling Behavioral Change Through Entertainment Education

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis: The Netflix series BoJack Horseman has made waves in the neurodiversity movement for its engaging portrayal of mental illness issues that resonate strongly with the Millennial and Generation Z demographics. However, the underlying thematic structures behind the program’s historically unusual success remain poorly theoretically understood. Specifically, there exists little research to justify why BoJack Horseman has been well-received when other programs of its nature (e.g. 13 Reasons Why) have been met with revulsion from neurodiverse individuals and advocates of the same demographic. This prompts two questions: what structural elements differentiate BoJack Horseman from its contemporaries, and can they be standardized?

Methods: In order to answer these questions, this study analyzes the first season of BoJack Horseman (including both the episodic and seasonal behavioral trends of the characters therein) in accordance with a qualitative adaptation of the, “stages of change,” concept described by the transtheoretical model of health communication. To this end, a team of three coders were recruited to collectively watch and interpret BoJack Horseman for its (in)congruency with these theoretical guidelines over a three-day collective viewing period (with disagreements resolved through group discussion). This model was selected to unite BoJack’s unusual success with an established framework for motivation and action.

Results: The results of this process indicate that, with three key permutations, the stages of change serve as an accurate approximation of the message organization within BoJack Horseman at both an episodic and seasonal level. These permutations include a tendency for characters to move throughout episodes from the problem contemplation stage to the action stage without planning in an intervening preparation stage (spontaneity), an unusually-high representation of maladaptive behavioral relapse across the season (recidivism), and a tendency for later episodes to move backward through stages, rather than progressing (as the model would ideally suggest) cleanly from precontemplation to problem termination (nonlinearity).

Conclusions: These findings suggest that BoJack Horseman’s widespread success with contemporary young adults is at least partially representable within the scope of existing theoretical knowledge of health communication studies. That said, its permutations to the stages of change (i.e. spontaneity, recidivism, and nonlinearity) are particularly consequential, as they begin to outline a form by which future imitators can attempt to grasp some fraction of the original program’s resonance. Having delineated these differences in message organization, this study concludes by affirming that the structure of BoJack Horseman is markedly different than its contemporaries in such a way that can theoretically be reproduced.

Implications for research and/or practice: These results may serve as useful formative guidelines for entertainment programming practices regarding the psychological effects of mental illness representation in entertainment media. In particular, they suggest the viability of the, “stages of change,” construct (and the transtheoretical model writ large) as a means of structuring mental health messages for Millennials and Generation Z – assuming said messages are constructed with respect to the permutations of spontaneity, recidivism, and nonlinearity mentioned above. Furthermore, future health communication researchers may also benefit from further embracing the qualitative value of the transtheoretical model (despite its decidedly quantitative theoretical origins) within entertainment education studies.