A Comparative Study of Online Depression Communities in China

Jingyun Tang, Guang Yu and Xiaoxu Yao
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Jingyun Tang: School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
Guang Yu: School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
Xiaoxu Yao: School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 14, 1-13

Abstract: Online communities have become a tool for researchers to understand and help individuals with depression. According to their operation mode in terms of management, communities can be divided into management depression communities (MDCs) and lacking-management depression communities (LDCs). This study aimed to investigate the characteristics and impact of LDCs in comparison with MDCs. All postings from the previous year were collected from the LDC and MDC. Keywords were extracted and coded to identify the themes, and a text classifier was built to identify the type of emotions and social support expressed in the postings. Community members were then clustered to explore their different participation patterns. We found that in the LDC, the expression of negative emotions was the most popular theme, there was a lack of information about the treatment of depression and a lack of social support providers, the level of engagement of providers was low, and support seekers did not receive attention. These results reveal the need for community management and can be used to develop more effective measures to support members of online depression communities.

Keywords: depression; online depression communities; negative emotion; social support; participation patterns (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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