Studies of Depression and Anxiety Using Reddit as a Data Source: Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND: The study of depression and anxiety using publicly available social media data is a research activity that has grown considerably over the past decade. The discussion platform Reddit has become a popular social media data source in this nascent area of study, in part because of the unique ways in which the platform is facilitative of research. To date, no work has been done to synthesize existing studies on depression and anxiety using Reddit. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this review is to understand the scope and nature of research using Reddit as a primary data source for studying depression and anxiety. METHODS: A scoping review was conducted using the Arksey and O'Malley framework. MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, Scopus, ScienceDirect, IEEE Xplore, and ACM academic databases were searched. Inclusion criteria were developed using the participants, concept, and context framework outlined by the Joanna Briggs Institute Scoping Review Methodology Group. Eligible studies featured an analytic focus on depression or anxiety and used naturalistic written expressions from Reddit users as a primary data source. RESULTS: A total of 54 studies were included in the review. Tables and corresponding analyses delineate the key methodological features, including a comparatively larger focus on depression versus anxiety, an even split of original and premade data sets, a widespread analytic focus on classifying the mental health states of Reddit users, and practical implications that often recommend new methods of professionally delivered monitoring and outreach for Reddit users. CONCLUSIONS: Studies of depression and anxiety using Reddit data are currently driven by a prevailing methodology that favors a technical, solution-based orientation. Researchers interested in advancing this research area will benefit from further consideration of conceptual issues surrounding the interpretation of Reddit data with the medical model of mental health. Further efforts are also needed to locate accountability and autonomy within practice implications, suggesting new forms of engagement with Reddit users.

Men's Work-Related Stress and Mental Health: Illustrating the Workings of Masculine Role Norms.

Although a strong relationship between employment and men's mental health has been identified, theoretical linkages between masculinity, employment, and mental health are not well developed and mental health supports that account for gender and employment are correspondingly inadequate. The purpose of this study is to contribute to theoretical understandings of men's employment-related mental health experience and raise possibilities for gender-responsive employer supports for men's mental health. Specifically, this study is a secondary analysis of narrative accounts from 18 men employed in male-dominated occupations about their employment-related mental health. Results of this study present evidence of processes by which theoretical concepts of masculine role norms influence work-related stress and mental health including: (a) injunctive norms, which operate through an internal sense of the cultural "shoulds" and "should nots"; (b) descriptive norms, which are communicated through the behaviors that a man sees other men enacting in his immediate environment; and (c) cohesive norms, which exert influence through observations of how men who are leaders, behave. Men's insights into the complexity of employment-related stress and mental health according to masculine role norms related to work demands and leadership modeling and messaging are discussed. This study concludes with potential ways forward for employer support for men's mental health.

Fathers Raising Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Stories of Marital Stability as Key to Parenting Success.

Using media reports of high divorce rates among couples of children with ASD as a point of departure, our purpose in this paper is to examine how married fathers of children with ASD understand their marriages relative to the demands of ASD and in the context of media reports of elevated divorce rates among parents raising children with ASD. We begin with a review of select literature pertaining to the impact of ASD on marriages and we include a brief account of popular media portrayals of the influence of having a child with a developmental disability, and ASD in particular, on marriages. We then describe our qualitative examination of narrative interview data from 26 married fathers raising children with ASD aged 2-13 beginning with our theoretical anchoring in social comparison to focus our attention on how fathers compare themselves with media accounts of elevated divorce rates among parents of children and also with other hypothetical family configurations. Our findings are evidence of fathers' strong and strengthened commitments to marriages and we illustrate a re-purposing of inflated portrayals of divorce rates to shore up fathers' sense of their own effectiveness as husbands and fathers.