Psychological distress in Afghan journalists: a descriptive study

Abstract

<jats:sec> <jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Purpose</jats:title> <jats:p>Afghanistan is one of the world’s most dangerous places for journalists. There are, however, no data on the mental health of Afghan journalists covering conflict in their country. The study aims to determine the degree to which Afghan journalists are exposed to traumatic events, their perceptions of organizational support, their rates of symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, their utilization of mental health services and the effectiveness of the treatment received.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Design/methodology/approach</jats:title> <jats:p>The entire study was undertaken in Dari (Farsi). Five major Afghan news organizations representing 104 journalists took part of whom 71 (68%) completed a simple eleven-point analog scale rating perceptions of organizational support. Symptoms of PTSD and depression were recorded with the Impact of Event Scale – Revised (IES-R) and the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), respectively. Behavioral comparisons were undertaken between those journalists who had and had not received mental health therapy.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Findings</jats:title> <jats:p>The majority of journalists exceeded cutoff scores for PTSD and major depression and reported high rates for exposure to traumatic events. There were no significant differences in IES-R and CES-D scores between journalists who had and had not received mental health therapy. Most journalists did not view their employers as supportive.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Originality/value</jats:title> <jats:p>To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to collect empirical data on the mental health of Afghan journalists. The results highlight the extreme stressors confronted by them, their correspondingly high levels of psychopathology and the relative ineffectiveness of mental health therapy given to a minority of those in distress. The implications of these findings are discussed.</jats:p> </jats:sec>

How have journalists been affected psychologically by their coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic? A descriptive study of two international news organisations

“…Studies of email-driven research have shown that acceptance rates of 40% are considered acceptable, 50% good, and 60% and above very good. 26 With this yardstick in mind, our participation rate of 66%, which overlaps with that obtained in our previous studies with Western journalists, [27][28][29] further supports the representative value of our sample.…”

“…There were no significant differences between journalists who had, or had not, received therapy when it came to age (M=40. 29…”

Ecuadorian Journalists Mental Health Influence on Changing Job Desire: A Cross Sectional Study

“…Part of the professional practice assumes that at some point journalists will assume risks that will affect their own health [ 49 ], although they do not always have access to services that allow them to meet their needs. In the case of mental health [ 50 ] they point out that there are limitations in access to therapy, and employers themselves do not consider it as a prescriptive element [ 31 , 51 ].…”

Reporting under extreme conditions: journalists' experience of disaster coverage

“…Indeed, a handful of Scandinavian journalists in our study had responses indicating a risk for poor mental health and posttraumatic stress, suggesting that for some, the consequences of the reporting assignment had been difficult. Studies of journalists covering war suggest that reporters and photographers may suffer psychologically from their work in zones of conflict (Feinstein and Starr, 2015;Lee et al, 2018;Osmann et al, 2020b;Peralta García and Ouariachi, 2021). They appear to be particularly vulnerable to the development of depression.…”