Worldwide, an increase in cases and severity of domestic violence (DV) has been reported as a result of the 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic. As one’s language can provide inferences...Show moreWorldwide, an increase in cases and severity of domestic violence (DV) has been reported as a result of the 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic. As one’s language can provide inferences about one’s mental health, this study analyzed word use in a DV online support group, aiming to investigate the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the mental health of DV victims. As social support and leisure activities might mitigate the consequences of DV on one’s mental health, their role as protective factors was examined. 5856 posts were collected from a DV support group and from two comparison groups on the social media platform Reddit. Confirmatory analysis was conducted following a registered pre-analysis plan. The results show that DV victims used significantly more linguistic indicators of depression than individuals in the comparison groups. However, linguistic indicators of depression did not increase significantly with the onset of COVID-19. Negative emotion words showed a weak negative correlation with words referring to social support (rho = - .110) and leisure activities (rho = -.137). Similarly, pre-occupation with COVID-19 was associated with using more negative emotion words (rho = .148). Exploratory analysis revealed that mid-pandemic, daily posting frequency in the DV support group was 22% higher than pre-pandemic. It is concluded that DV victims show more linguistic indicators of depression than comparison groups and that these characteristics are stable over time. Further, one’s concern with COVID-19 could contribute to negative emotions, whereas social support and leisure activities could function to some degree as protective factors for victims of DVShow less
The COVID-19 pandemic has created another pandemic: one of domestic violence (DV) and intimate partner violence (IPV). Multiple sources have indicated that there is a relationship between the use...Show moreThe COVID-19 pandemic has created another pandemic: one of domestic violence (DV) and intimate partner violence (IPV). Multiple sources have indicated that there is a relationship between the use of certain words and depressive symptoms, for instance the self-awareness theory of depression states that depressed people use more words referring to the self. This study aimed to see if there was a relationship between exposure to DV and depressive symptoms, indicated by word use and to examine the influence of COVID-19 on the use of these words that indicate depressive symptoms. In total 4671 texts from three different subreddits were analysed: one on DV and two control non-DV groups. The outcome variables were: first-person singular pronouns, negation words, negative emotion words, anxiety-related words. Results indicated that victims of DV used more first-person singular words, words related to negative emotions and anxiety-related words and fewer negation words, relative to the control group. The general effect of subreddit on word use was a value of Pillai’s trace of .662. No effect of time or interactions between subreddits and time were found on the use of the word categories. There is potential in the use of textual analysis to detect depressive symptoms and possibly also victimisation of DV.Show less
Victims of domestic violence have a threefold risk for developing depression and are likelier to commit suicide than non-victims. As the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the incidence of domestic...Show moreVictims of domestic violence have a threefold risk for developing depression and are likelier to commit suicide than non-victims. As the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the incidence of domestic violence and mental health problems, social media site Reddit was used to detect changes in depression and suicidality in victims word use (using more first-person singular pronouns, negative emotion words, death-related words and less positive emotion words). The present study aims to see whether the word use suggesting depression or suicidality has increased in the victims (r/domesticviolence) versus non-victims (r/changemyview) from pre-COVID19 to during COVID-19. 1669 and 2358 posts for the r/domesticviolence and r/changemyview respectively were analyzed using LIWC2015. The main effect of subreddit showed that victims used more first-person singular pronouns (Eta squared η²=.668) and negative emotion words (Eta squared η²=.167), both having a large effect. The control group used more positive emotion words and death-related words. Main effect of year showed an increase in the use of first-person singular pronouns in both victims and non-victims. There was no interaction effect between the year and the subreddits. These results indicate that COVID-19 didn’t contribute to the differences in depressive or suicidal word use between the two subreddits. However, COVID-19 had an effect in general for the increases in self-focus. Finally, overall the victims showed more word use related to depression or suicidality. Some limitations and future directions were considered in the end.Show less
