![Sample our Communication Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, 2013 & 2014 volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5927/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Information-Science2.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Reddit has provided rich data on mental health discourse. The present study uses 40,335 online posts from Reddit communities to investigate how language can contribute to the understanding of PTSD and C-PTSD. The results showed distinct language patterns in the use of first-person pronouns, cognitive processing, and emotion words, suggesting that they are separate disorders with different effects on survivors. Further, while some social media studies have differentiated submissions and comments, few have investigated the language changes between these contexts. Post-hoc results showed a clear distinction between two contexts across several linguistic markers. Discussion and future directions are explored.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to express gratitude to editor Teresa Thompson, Ryan Boyd, James W. Pennebaker and the members of the Pennebaker Language Lab, and our anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback on our manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Additional analyses were conducted to test if this same pattern persisted with outliers include. Results showed the same results and are available from authors upon request.