Suicide and bereavement on the Chinese social media

Abstract

Background: User-generated content on the Internet, such as micro-blogs, provided new insights for us to research and prevent suicide. Objectives: By analyzing micro-blogs posted by people who died by suicide, we aim to 1) examine temporal and linguistic patterns of suicide-related micro-blogs and online comments to them; and 2) summarize online users’ reactions to these suicide cases. Methods: Micro-blog posts of seven individuals died by suicide, as well as comments to these posts, are collected from Sina Weibo. Sentences are split into words; and then frequencies of these words, as well as association between words, are counted. Linguistic patterns are further analyzed by computer using a Simplified Chinese Psychological Linguistic Analysis Dictionary. Intensity of posting and using a certain word is counted using a nonparametric curve estimation method. Online comments are manually reviewed using discourse analysis method. Results: The study will demonstrate the linguistic, psychological, and communication patterns of the online representation of suicide cases. We will also discuss the feasibility of applying the methods to examine bigger amount of online data for understanding suicidal behavior and its impacts.