Department of Information Management, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Jun 26;18(13):6855. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18136855.
It is known that social support and empathy are beneficial for mental health. As a result of the widespread development of social media, online social support and empathy could also influence user behaviors during the development of online communities. However, few studies have examined these effects from the perspective of online mental health communities. These communities appear to be a crucial source for mental health related support, but the spread of online empathy in these communities is not well-understood. This study focused on 22 mental health related subreddits, and matched and compared users (1) who received social support with those who did not receive social support, and users (2) who received more empathic social support with those who received less empathic social support. The results showed that social support and empathy are "contagious". That is, users who received social support at their first post would be more likely to post again and provide support for others; in addition, users who received more empathic support would subsequently express a higher level of empathy to others in the future. Our findings indicate the potential chain reaction of social support and empathy in online mental health communities. Our study also provides insights into how online mental health communities might better assist people to deliver social support that can help others to deal with mental problems.
已知社会支持和同理心对心理健康有益。由于社交媒体的广泛发展，在线社会支持和同理心也可能影响用户在在线社区发展过程中的行为。然而，很少有研究从在线心理健康社区的角度来研究这些影响。这些社区似乎是与心理健康相关的支持的重要来源，但在线同理心在这些社区中的传播还不太清楚。本研究关注了 22 个与心理健康相关的子版块，并对（1）获得社会支持的用户与未获得社会支持的用户，以及（2）获得更多同理心支持的用户与获得同理心支持较少的用户进行了匹配和比较。结果表明，社会支持和同理心具有“传染性”。也就是说，在首次发布帖子时获得社会支持的用户更有可能再次发布帖子，并为他人提供支持；此外，那些收到更多同理心支持的用户在未来会对他人表现出更高水平的同理心。我们的研究结果表明了在线心理健康社区中社会支持和同理心的潜在连锁反应。我们的研究还为在线心理健康社区如何更好地帮助人们提供有助于他人应对心理问题的社会支持提供了一些见解。
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