Youth Mental Health Reportage Among Selected Newspapers In Nigeria

Abstract

The rate at which Nigerian youths are showing different traits of mental health defects is a matter of great concern. This is despite the fact that this fraction of any nation’s population is a strong determinant for both the economic and social development emancipations. Hence, this study, therefore, examined newspaper reportage of youth mental health in selected Nigerian newspapers between 2015 and 2025 to identify the extent of youth mental health reportage in selected Nigerian Newspapers. Agenda-Setting and Social Cognitive Theories were adopted framework with content analysis research design. Multistage sampling procedure was employed for four purposively selected national newspapers: Daily Trust, Nigerian Tribune, Vanguard, and The Sun; selected based on their national circulation and editorial diversity. Analysis showed low representation of youth mental health reportage by Nigerian Newspaper as Daily Trust recorded lowest proportion of youth mental health reports 19.0% from its 322 reports, followed by The Sun 29.9%, Vanguard 31.8% and Nigerian Tribune recorded highest reportage with 53.2%. Lack of prominence with 96% articles tucked on the inside pages, 2.2% reports were on the front pages of Daily Trust and Nigerian Tribune, 3.1% for center spread, 9.5% for inside front page and 2.1% for back page, while frequency revealed occasional publication on annual mental and world drug day with 87.5% and regular coverage with 27.3%