Psycholinguistic changes in the communication of adolescent users in a suicidal ideation online community during the COVID-19 pandemic

Feldhege, Johannes; Wolf, Markus; Moessner, Markus; Bauer, Stephanie

doi:10.1007/s00787-022-02067-7

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Feldhege, J., Wolf, M., Moessner, M., & Bauer, S. (2023). Psycholinguistic changes in the communication of adolescent users in a suicidal ideation online community during the COVID-19 pandemic. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 32(6), 975–985. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-022-02067-7

Abstract

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, increases in suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in adolescents have been registered. Many adolescents experiencing suicidal ideation turn to online communities for social support. In this retrospective observational study, we investigated the communication—language style, contents and user activity—in 7975 unique posts and 51,119 comments by N = 2862 active adolescent users in a large suicidal ideation support community (SISC) on the social media website reddit.com in the onset period o