Exploring the Effect of Social Support and Empathy on User Engagement in Online Mental Health Communities

Abstract

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.

Keywords: empathy; online mental health community; reddit; social support; user engagement.

Figure 1

Statistics of the collected OMHC dataset. The “subsequent posts/comments in the same OMHC” means the posts/comments that users published subsequently in the same OMHC as their first post.

Figure 2

Empathy level of comments attached to users’ first posts (left) and users’ subsequent comments (right) in each dimension.

Figure 3

Effect size of the difference in return probability between more comments group and fewer comments group in different treatment definitions (more comments group: $numberofreceivedcomments>k$, fewer comments group: $numberofreceivedcomments\le k$. *** p < 0.001.

Figure 4

Effect size of the difference in return probability between more empathic group and less empathic group in different treatment definitions (more empathic group: $averageempathyscoreofreceivedcomments>k$, less empathic group: $averageempathyscoreofreceivedcomments\le k$). * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001.