IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0251787.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The relationship between linguistic expression in blog content and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts: A longitudinal study

Author

Listed:
  • Bridianne O’Dea
  • Tjeerd W Boonstra
  • Mark E Larsen
  • Thin Nguyen
  • Svetha Venkatesh
  • Helen Christensen

Abstract

Data generated within social media platforms may present a new way to identify individuals who are experiencing mental illness. This study aimed to investigate the associations between linguistic features in individuals’ blog data and their symptoms of depression, generalised anxiety, and suicidal ideation. Individuals who blogged were invited to participate in a longitudinal study in which they completed fortnightly symptom scales for depression and anxiety (PHQ-9, GAD-7) for a period of 36 weeks. Blog data published in the same period was also collected, and linguistic features were analysed using the LIWC tool. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed to investigate the correlations between the linguistic features and symptoms between subjects. Multivariate regression models were used to predict longitudinal changes in symptoms within subjects. A total of 153 participants consented to the study. The final sample consisted of the 38 participants who completed the required number of symptom scales and generated blog data during the study period. Between-subject analysis revealed that the linguistic features “tentativeness” and “non-fluencies” were significantly correlated with symptoms of depression and anxiety, but not suicidal thoughts. Within-subject analysis showed no robust correlations between linguistic features and changes in symptoms. The findings may provide evidence of a relationship between some linguistic features in social media data and mental health; however, the study was limited by missing data and other important considerations. The findings also suggest that linguistic features observed at the group level may not generalise to, or be useful for, detecting individual symptom change over time.

Suggested Citation

  • Bridianne O’Dea & Tjeerd W Boonstra & Mark E Larsen & Thin Nguyen & Svetha Venkatesh & Helen Christensen, 2021. "The relationship between linguistic expression in blog content and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts: A longitudinal study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(5), pages 1-17, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0251787
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251787
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0251787
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0251787&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0251787?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kaplan, Andreas M. & Haenlein, Michael, 2010. "Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 59-68, January.
    2. Rajagopal, 2014. "The Human Factors," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Architecting Enterprise, chapter 9, pages 225-249, Palgrave Macmillan.
    3. Colin D Mathers & Dejan Loncar, 2006. "Projections of Global Mortality and Burden of Disease from 2002 to 2030," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(11), pages 1-20, November.
    4. Virginia Gewin, 2016. "Data sharing: An open mind on open data," Nature, Nature, vol. 529(7584), pages 117-119, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. XiaoJuan Zhang & Xiang Jinpeng & Farhan Khan, 2020. "The Influence of Social Media on Employee’s Knowledge Sharing Motivation: A Two-Factor Theory Perspective," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(3), pages 21582440209, July.
    2. Thomas Wozniak & Brigitte Stangl & Roland Schegg & Andreas Liebrich, 2017. "The return on tourism organizations’ social media investments: preliminary evidence from Belgium, France, and Switzerland," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 75-100, March.
    3. Baccarella, Christian V. & Wagner, Timm F. & Kietzmann, Jan H. & McCarthy, Ian P., 2018. "Social media? It's serious! Understanding the dark side of social media," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 431-438.
    4. Simplice A. Asongu & Stella-Maris I. Orim & Rexon T. Nting, 2019. "Terrorism and Social Media: Global Evidence," Journal of Global Information Technology Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(3), pages 208-228, July.
    5. Simplice A. Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu & Stella-Maris I. Orim & Chris Pyke, 2019. "Crime and Social Media," Research Africa Network Working Papers 19/003, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    6. Hedviga Tkáčová & Martina Pavlíková & Zita Jenisová & Patrik Maturkanič & Roman Králik, 2021. "Social Media and Students’ Wellbeing: An Empirical Analysis during the Covid-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-19, September.
    7. Baştuğ, Sedat & Şakar, Gül Denktaş & Gülmez, Seçil, 2020. "An application of brand personality dimensions to container ports: A place branding perspective," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    8. Ni Huang & Yili Hong & Gordon Burtch, 2015. "Digital Social Visibility, Anonymity and User Content Generation: Evidence from Natural Experiments," Working Papers 15-04, NET Institute.
    9. Nicolò Pagan & Wenjun Mei & Cheng Li & Florian Dörfler, 2021. "A meritocratic network formation model for the rise of social media influencers," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, December.
    10. Shirish, Anuragini & Boughzala, Imed & Srivastava, Shirish C., 2016. "Adaptive use of social networking applications in contemporary organizations: Examining the motivations of Gen Y cohorts," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 1111-1123.
    11. Thomas Wozniak & Brigitte Stangl & Roland Schegg & Andreas Liebrich, 0. "The return on tourism organizations’ social media investments: preliminary evidence from Belgium, France, and Switzerland," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-26.
    12. Pace, Stefano & Buzzanca, Stefano & Fratocchi, Luciano, 2016. "The structure of conversations on social networks: Between dialogic and dialectic threads," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 1144-1151.
    13. Raza Ur Rahman & Syed Mohsin Ali Shah & Hatem El-Gohary & Muzaffar Abbas & Syed Haider Khalil & Saad Al Altheeb & Fahad Sultan, 2020. "Social Media Adoption and Financial Sustainability: Learned Lessons from Developing Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-26, December.
    14. Federico Iannacci & Colm Fearon & Kristine Pole, 2021. "From Acceptance to Adaptive Acceptance of Social Media Policy Change: a Set-Theoretic Analysis of B2B SMEs," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 663-680, June.
    15. Amanatidis, Dimitrios & Mylona, Ifigeneia & Mamalis, Spyridon & Kamenidou, Irene (Eirini), 2020. "Social media for cultural communication: A critical investigation of museums’ Instagram practices," MPRA Paper 100677, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Gallego Sánchez, María del Carmen & De-Pablos-Heredero, Carmen & Medina-Merodio, Jose-Amelio & Robina-Ramírez, Rafael & Fernandez-Sanz, Luis, 2021. "Relationships among relational coordination dimensions: Impact on the quality of education online with a structural equations model," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    17. Diletta Acuti & Laura Grazzini & Valentina Mazzoli & Gaetano Aiello, 2019. "Stakeholder engagement in green place branding: A focus on user‐generated content," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(2), pages 492-501, March.
    18. Rahman, Shaikh Moksadur, 2020. "Relationship between Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intention: Evidence from Bangladesh," Asian Business Review, Asian Business Consortium, vol. 10(2), pages 99-108.
    19. Fan, Rui & Xu, Ke & Zhao, Jichang, 2018. "An agent-based model for emotion contagion and competition in online social media," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 495(C), pages 245-259.
    20. Nour El Houda Ben Amor & Mohamed Nabil Mzoughi, 2023. "Do Millennials’ Motives for Using Snapchat Influence the Effectiveness of Snap Ads?," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(3), pages 21582440231, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0251787. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.