Research on mental health beliefs and behaviors

My primary line of research applies a cultural sociology lens to contextualize long-term trends in mental health and treatment in the United States. I focus on changing understandings and beliefs at the macro level and how they influence individuals’ behaviors and decision-making.

Much of my research uses computational and qualitative text analysis and custom text datasets from newspapers and social media to analyze how mental health and illness appear and operate in U.S. culture.

• Johnson, Amy L. 2025. “Mental Illness and the Resilience of Deviance.” Sociological Perspectives
• Johnson, Amy L. 2024. “Psychotic White Men and Bipolar Black Women? Racialized and Gendered Implications of Mental Health Terminology.” Social Science & Medicine 352:117015.

My other research on mental health uses the National Health Interview Survey to assess trends in psychological distress and treatment-seeking behaviors.

• Johnson, Amy L., Christopher Levesque, Neil A. Lewis, Jr., and Asad L. Asad. 2024. “Uncertainty about Immigration Enforcement Predicts Latino U.S. Citizens and Noncitizens’ Psychological Distress, 2011-2018.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121(9):e2306554121.
  • 2024 IPUMS Research Award
  • Featured in Lehigh News, Cornell Chronicle; Forbes México, and HealthDay.
• Johnson, Amy L. 2021. “Changes in Mental Health and Treatment, 1997-2017.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 62(1):53-68.
  • Mentioned in the podcast Mad in America.
  • Featured in The Society Pages.

Research on gender beliefs

In collaborative research conducted with Emily Carian, we explore how young adults’ gender beliefs are informed by cultural ideas of individualism and agency and contribute to persistent gender inequality by directing young adults away from structural solutions. The project, which uses longitudinal interview and survey data, is ongoing.

• Carian, Emily K. and Amy L. Johnson. 2022. “The Agency Myth: Persistence in Individual Explanations for Gender Inequality.” Social Problems 69(1):123-42.
• Baralt, Lori, Emily K. Carian, Amy L. Johnson, Sojung Lim, and Soo-Yeon Yoon. 2020. “Millennials and Gender in an Era of Growing Inequality.” Sociological Perspectives 63(3):452–60.