Critical behavioral traits foster peer engagement in Online Mental Health Communities.
Online Mental Health Communities (OMHCs), such as Reddit, have witnessed a surge in popularity as go-to platforms for seeking information and support in managing mental health needs. Platforms like Reddit offer immediate interactions with peers, granting users a vital space for seeking mental health...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2025-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0316906 |
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| author | Aseem Srivastava Tanya Gupta Alison Cerezo Sarah Peregrine Grin Lord Md Shad Akhtar Tanmoy Chakraborty |
| author_facet | Aseem Srivastava Tanya Gupta Alison Cerezo Sarah Peregrine Grin Lord Md Shad Akhtar Tanmoy Chakraborty |
| author_sort | Aseem Srivastava |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Online Mental Health Communities (OMHCs), such as Reddit, have witnessed a surge in popularity as go-to platforms for seeking information and support in managing mental health needs. Platforms like Reddit offer immediate interactions with peers, granting users a vital space for seeking mental health assistance. However, the largely unregulated nature of these platforms introduces intricate challenges for both users and society at large. This study explores the factors that drive peer engagement within counseling threads, aiming to enhance our understanding of this critical phenomenon. We introduce BeCOPE, a novel behavior encoded Peer counseling dataset comprising over 10, 118 posts and 58, 279 comments sourced from 21 mental health-specific subreddits. The dataset is annotated using three major fine-grained behavior labels: (a) intent, (b) criticism, and (c) readability, along with the emotion labels. Our analysis indicates the prominence of "self-criticism" as the most prevalent form of criticism expressed by help-seekers, accounting for a significant 43% of interactions. Intriguingly, we observe that individuals who explicitly express their need for help are 18.01% more likely to receive assistance compared to those who present "surveys" or engage in "rants." Furthermore, we highlight the pivotal role of well-articulated problem descriptions, showing that superior readability effectively doubles the likelihood of receiving the sought-after support. Our study emphasizes the essential role of OMHCs in offering personalized guidance and unveils behavior-driven engagement patterns. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c36cd6470bdb485f90dee0f7a27489b7 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj-art-c36cd6470bdb485f90dee0f7a27489b72025-08-20T03:10:47ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032025-01-01201e031690610.1371/journal.pone.0316906Critical behavioral traits foster peer engagement in Online Mental Health Communities.Aseem SrivastavaTanya GuptaAlison CerezoSarah Peregrine Grin LordMd Shad AkhtarTanmoy ChakrabortyOnline Mental Health Communities (OMHCs), such as Reddit, have witnessed a surge in popularity as go-to platforms for seeking information and support in managing mental health needs. Platforms like Reddit offer immediate interactions with peers, granting users a vital space for seeking mental health assistance. However, the largely unregulated nature of these platforms introduces intricate challenges for both users and society at large. This study explores the factors that drive peer engagement within counseling threads, aiming to enhance our understanding of this critical phenomenon. We introduce BeCOPE, a novel behavior encoded Peer counseling dataset comprising over 10, 118 posts and 58, 279 comments sourced from 21 mental health-specific subreddits. The dataset is annotated using three major fine-grained behavior labels: (a) intent, (b) criticism, and (c) readability, along with the emotion labels. Our analysis indicates the prominence of "self-criticism" as the most prevalent form of criticism expressed by help-seekers, accounting for a significant 43% of interactions. Intriguingly, we observe that individuals who explicitly express their need for help are 18.01% more likely to receive assistance compared to those who present "surveys" or engage in "rants." Furthermore, we highlight the pivotal role of well-articulated problem descriptions, showing that superior readability effectively doubles the likelihood of receiving the sought-after support. Our study emphasizes the essential role of OMHCs in offering personalized guidance and unveils behavior-driven engagement patterns.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0316906 |
| spellingShingle | Aseem Srivastava Tanya Gupta Alison Cerezo Sarah Peregrine Grin Lord Md Shad Akhtar Tanmoy Chakraborty Critical behavioral traits foster peer engagement in Online Mental Health Communities. PLoS ONE |
| title | Critical behavioral traits foster peer engagement in Online Mental Health Communities. |
| title_full | Critical behavioral traits foster peer engagement in Online Mental Health Communities. |
| title_fullStr | Critical behavioral traits foster peer engagement in Online Mental Health Communities. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Critical behavioral traits foster peer engagement in Online Mental Health Communities. |
| title_short | Critical behavioral traits foster peer engagement in Online Mental Health Communities. |
| title_sort | critical behavioral traits foster peer engagement in online mental health communities |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0316906 |
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