Research On Characteristics And Users Behaviours Of Different Types Of Online Depression Communities

Depression is a global public health concern that cannot be ignored.Approximately 95 million individuals currently suffer from depression in C hina;however,because of the stigma of mental illness and scarcity of mental health services in C hina,most patients go undetected and untreated.The Internet provides a platform for depressed individuals to communicate and support each other,linking individuals who are isolated/who may feel isolated in real life into online depression communities(ODC s).According to different forms of O DC s,it can be divided into organized communit ies(OC s)and aggregate communities(ACs).C urrently,OC s are underrepresented,while ACs attract a large number of depressed individuals to participate active ly.To reveal the management and risk problems of O DCs and to improve the theoretical system of depression-related research,this study a nalyzes the characteristics and users behavior of different forms of O DC s and explores the differences among them.The main research components were as follows:First,we explored the characteristics and user composit ion of OCs and ACs.To do this,community themes were analyzed using the TF-IDF;then,deep learning and clustering methods were used to reveal the users’ depression degree and user role characteristics of the community,that is,identifying support groups and ordinary members.Finally,the participation index was defined to measure the distribution and participation of users with different characteristics in different communities.The results revealed that OCs have more support groups and are active,with mildly to moderately depressed users pa rticipating more and engaging in social activities on topics related to depression treatment,while ACs have more users with severe depression levels and fewer support groups.Second,a quantitative study on supporter contributions in different types of communities was conducted.To begin,a theoretical model of the factors influencing supporter contribution was proposed;second,variables were designed and measured,and finally,empir ical analysis was used to reveal the influence of subjective well-being(SWB)and community response on supporter contribution.The empir ical results show that SWB has a positive impact on the number of community contributions made by supporters: the higher the SWB of supporters in OCs,the longer their contributions last,whereas in ACs their contributions are shorter.Furthermore,the results show that community response is the most important factor in the supporters’ contribution in ACs,but has no significant impact on the supporters’ contribution in OCs.These findings suggest policy recommendations for community managers to imple ment measures to promote positive contributions from support groups.The third component is the impact of depression severity and community response on ordinary member engagement.The findings show that members with higher levels of depression were more engaged in ACs and less engaged in OC s.In addition,community response had a positive effect on members’ active participation,which was reinforced in the ACs.The findings shed light on the possible issue of negative emotional risk in ACs and informs OC managers of the importance of promoting active participation among members.Fourth,emotional contagion in the interaction of the depressed groups was explored.First,emotional contagion during depre ssed group interaction based on a text analysis was revealed;after this,the contagion model was used to analyze the characteristics of emotional contagion,including the analys is of the theme of the contagion source information,revealing that positive e motions involving hope and negative emotions involving despair and fear are more likely to spread.The analysis of members’ interaction patterns reveals that nighttime is the active period,and the susceptibility index was calculated to identify susceptible groups.Fina lly,suggestions were made for interventions to depressed groups.This study applies classical sociological theory to the analyt ical framework of the O DCs,reveals differences in the characteristics of different types of ODC s,as well as the management and risk issues involved.The findings of this study may serve as a reference for managers to improve the operation of O DC s and for mental health service providers to intervene online with depressed individuals.