Frontiers in Psychology 研究：原住民纪录片叙事如何影响文化韧性与心理健康意识

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.

Sec. Cultural Psychology

Abstract

Indigenous documentary narratives may provide culturally grounded contexts for understanding identity, resilience and mental health, yet empirical evidence linking narrative engagement with these interconnected outcomes remains limited, particularly within Indigenous communities in China. This cross-sectional mixed-methods observational study examined associations among narrative engagement, perceived cultural authenticity, cultural identification, cultural resilience, mental health awareness, stigma and help-seeking attitudes among 480 adults from ethnic minority communities in Yunnan and Hunan Provinces, China, with 36 participants contributing qualitative data. After a standardized viewing session involving four documentaries representing Yi, Miao, Bai and Tujia/Miao narratives, participants completed culturally adapted measures of narrative engagement and cultural and mental-health constructs. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the final 60-item, six-factor measurement model (χ²(1695) = 3284.15, χ²/df = 1.937, CFI = .941, TLI = .938, RMSEA = .044, 95% CI [.042, .046], SRMR = .048), with satisfactory reliability and convergent validity. Narrative engagement was positively associated with cultural resilience (r = .51), mental health awareness (r = .44), and help-seeking attitudes, while showing an inverse association with mental health stigma (r = −.35; all p < .001). Multivariable models explained 53.4% of the variance in cultural resilience and 34.8% of the variance in mental health awareness. Covariate-adjusted statistical indirect associations were observed through cultural identification (β = .225, 95% BCa CI [.168, .291]) and perceived cultural authenticity (β = .114, 95% CI [.058, .144]). Qualitative analysis identified cultural mirroring, normalization of distress through cultural metaphors, and intergenerational dialogue as central themes. Overall, the findings identify interconnected statistical associations among narrative, cultural and mental-health variables, but do not establish temporal or causal pathways. Longitudinal and comparative studies are needed to examine the temporal stability and potential mechanisms underlying these associations.

Keywords

Cultural authenticity, Cultural identification, Cultural resilience, Help-seeking attitudes, Indigenous communities, Indigenous documentary narratives, mental health awareness, mental health stigma

Received

22 August 2026

Accepted

30 September 2026

Copyright

© 2026 Li, Jia and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence:

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