“To self. To others. To heal.”: Trauma and Recovery Narratives in #SelfLove Posts

Self-love has been debated as a virtue or a vice for centuries. The discourse on social media further expands this tension through visible hashtags, such as #selflove. Simultaneously, trauma has been increasingly becoming more present in this everyday online discourse, where experiences of suffering and recovery are being narrated to a wide online audience. This study addresses a gap by analyzing how trauma is being mentioned with #selflove, an important focus due to public narratives increasingly shaping how healing is understood. This study examined how trauma is mentioned within #selflove posts on Instagram and Twitter (now X) (RQ1), and whether posts that disclose trauma are more likely to frame this through stories of resilience (RQ2). With around 70% of people experiencing trauma, it is important to examine how #selflove can frame trauma and healing. This study analyzed social media public posts collected in 2019 as part of a larger project on lay beliefs about self-love using...Show moreSelf-love has been debated as a virtue or a vice for centuries. The discourse on social media further expands this tension through visible hashtags, such as #selflove. Simultaneously, trauma has been increasingly becoming more present in this everyday online discourse, where experiences of suffering and recovery are being narrated to a wide online audience. This study addresses a gap by analyzing how trauma is being mentioned with #selflove, an important focus due to public narratives increasingly shaping how healing is understood. This study examined how trauma is mentioned within #selflove posts on Instagram and Twitter (now X) (RQ1), and whether posts that disclose trauma are more likely to frame this through stories of resilience (RQ2). With around 70% of people experiencing trauma, it is important to examine how #selflove can frame trauma and healing. This study analyzed social media public posts collected in 2019 as part of a larger project on lay beliefs about self-love using a mixed-method, cross-sectional design. 929 posts that referenced both self-love and trauma-related hashtags were included after screening for eligibility. Posts were coded using a theory-guided codebook through a content analysis. Interrater reliability for all subcategories exceeded Krippendorff’s α = .80. Descriptive frequencies were computed to address RQ1, and a chisquare test assessed the co-occurrence between disclosure (vulnerable tone) and resilience for RQ2. Trauma was most often mentioned in the context of psychological impact (37.8%) rather than through explicit descriptions of specific traumatic events (e.g., sexual abuse, childhood abuse, domestic violence). Recovery talk was common, particularly through a motivational/inspirational tone (49.7%),and spiritual/alternative healing (29.5%)and empowerment (25.9%) were frequent themes, while vulnerable disclosure was comparatively rare (5.9%). Resilience and disclosure co-occurred more than solely by random chance, χ²(1) = 4.754, p = .029, though the association was small (φ = .072). Overall, the findings of this study suggest that #selflove discourse often focuses on the emotional and psychological effects of trauma rather than detailing the traumatic experience itself. Self-love may thus become a public, relational practice in which creating meaning is shaped by strategy and visibility, especially by the increased framing of trauma in ways that are platform-friendly. Implications of this work are that #selflove discourse may favor uplifting trauma talk and steer expression towards recovery narratives.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections

“To self. To others. To heal.”: Trauma and Recovery Narratives in #SelfLove Posts