Journal article
Mental illness and bipolar disorder on Twitter: implications for stigma and social support
Journal of mental health (Abingdon, England), v 29(2)
03 Mar 2020
PMID: 31694433
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Background: Mental illness (MI), and particularly, bipolar disorder (BD), are highly stigmatized. However, it is unknown if this stigma is also represented on social media.
Aims: Characterize Twitter-based stigma and social support messaging ("tweets") about mental health/illness (MH)/MI and BD and determine which tweets garnered retweets.
Methods: We collected tweets about MH/MI and BD during a three-month period and analyzed tweets from dates with the most tweets ("spikes"), an indicator of topic interest. A sample was manually content analyzed, and the remainder were classified using machine learning (logistic regression) by topic, stigma, and social support messaging. We compared stigma and support toward MH/MI versus BD and used logistic regression to quantify tweet features associated with retweets, to assess tweet reach.
Results: Of the 1,270,902 tweets analyzed, 94.7% discussed MH/MI and 5.3% discussed BD. Spikes coincided with a celebrity's death and a MH awareness campaign. Although the sample contained more support than stigma messaging, BD tweets contained more stigma and less support than MH/MI tweets. However, stigma messaging was infrequently retweeted, and users often retweeted personal MH experiences.
Conclusions: These findings demonstrate opportunities for social media advocacy to reduce stigma and increase displays of social support towards people living with BD.
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Details
- Title
- Mental illness and bipolar disorder on Twitter: implications for stigma and social support
- Creators
- Alexandra Budenz - Drexel UniversityAnn Klassen - Drexel UniversityJonathan Purtle - Drexel UniversityElad Yom Tov - Microsoft ResearchMichael Yudell - Drexel UniversityPhilip Massey - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Journal of mental health (Abingdon, England), v 29(2)
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Health Management and Policy; Community Health and Prevention; Center for Science, Technology, and Society
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000494904100001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85074993249
- Other Identifier
- 991019168971704721
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- Collaboration types
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Psychiatry
- Psychology, Clinical