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.

Computational text analysis: mental health and illness in U.S. culture

• Johnson, Amy L. 2026. “An Exploratory Analysis of Self-Diagnosis on Reddit.” SSM - Mental Health 9:100597.
• Johnson, Amy L. 2025. “Mental Illness and the Resilience of Deviance.” Sociological Perspectives 68(1-3):82-101.
• Johnson, Amy L. 2024. “Psychotic White Men and Bipolar Black Women? Racialized and Gendered Implications of Mental Health Terminology.” Social Science & Medicine 352:117015.
  • Featured in Social Science & Medicine open access special issue on Power, Structure, and Health.

Suicide

• Johnson, Amy L. 2026. “More than a Means: The Relationship between Gun Culture and Suicide.” Society and Mental Health Online first.

National Health Interview Survey: psychological distress and treatment-seeking

• 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 Health Surveys Best Published Research Award
  • 2025 Best Publication award, ASA Mental Health Section
  • Featured in Lehigh News, Cornell Chronicle, Forbes México, HealthDay, KFF Health News, and Stanford Report.
  • Cited in Trump v. CASA, Inc., in support of birthright citizenship. U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, 2025. Consolidated before the Supreme Court.
• 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 (equal authorship). 2025. “What’s Hard is Yet to Come: Critical Junctures and Changing Gender Beliefs at the Transition from College to Career.” Sociological Forum. 41(2):259-272.
  • Featured by the Stanford VMWare Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab on LinkedIn
• 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.