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

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 and personal 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 or neutral) 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 that those 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 available tweets 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, is important given the growing number of international movements which seek to increase ACE awareness, prevent ACEs and mitigate their lifelong negative effects.