Examining Social Capital, Social Support, and Language Use in an Online Depression Forum: Social Network and Content Analysis
- Resource Type
- article
- Authors
- Pan, Wenjing; Feng, Bo; Shen, Cuihua
- Source
- Journal of Medical Internet Research, Vol 22, Iss 6, p e17365 (2020)
- Subject
- Computer applications to medicine. Medical informatics
R858-859.7
Public aspects of medicine
RA1-1270
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 1438-8871
BackgroundThe use of peer-to-peer online support groups and communities has grown into a social phenomenon. Many people use online support groups and communities to seek and provide social support. It is essential to examine how users’ participation behaviors may contribute to different outcomes. ObjectiveThis study aimed to (1) use the structural positions of online depression forum users in their reply network to predict received support and (2) examine their language use reflecting their health conditions. MethodsA total of 2061 users and their 62,274 replies posted on a depression forum from July 2004 to July 2014 were extracted using a web crawler written in Python. The content of the forum users’ posts and replies and their reply patterns were examined. A social network analysis method was used to build the reply networks of users. The computerized text analysis method was used to measure features of the forum users’ language styles. ResultsForum users’ bridging social capital (operationalized as network betweenness) was positively associated with the level of communication accommodation in their received replies (P=.04). Forum users’ bonding social capital (operationalized as network constraint) was negatively associated with the level of communication accommodation in their received replies (P