Linguistic analysis of online domestic violence testimonies in the
context of COVID-19
Abstract
Worldwide, an increase in cases and severity of domestic violence (DV)
has been reported as a result of the 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)
pandemic. As one’s language can provide insight in one’s mental health,
this study analyzed word use in a DV online support group, aiming to
investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on DV victims. Words
reflecting social support and leisure activities were investigated as
protective factors against linguistic indicators of depression. 5856
posts were collected from the r/domesticviolence subreddit and two
neutral comparison subreddits (r/changemyview & r/femalefashionadvice).
In the DV support group, the average number of daily posts increased
significantly by 22% from pre-pandemic to mid-pandemic. Confirmatory
analysis was conducted following a registered pre-analysis plan. DV
victims used significantly more linguistic indicators of depression than
individuals in the comparison groups. These linguistic indicators did
not change with the onset of COVID-19. The use of negative emotion words
was negatively related to the use of social support words (Spearman’s
rho correlation coefficient [rho] = -.110) and words referring to
leisure activities (rho = -.137). Pre-occupation with COVID-19 was
associated with the use of negative emotion words (rho = .148).We
conclude that language of DV victims is characterized by indicators of
depression and this characteristic is stable over time. Concerns with
COVID-19 could contribute to negative emotions, whereas social support
and leisure activities could function to some degree as protective
factors. A potential weakness of this study could be the limited ability
of word count methods to assess the impact of stressors such as
COVID-19. Future studies could make use of natural language processing
and other advanced methods of linguistic analysis to learn about the
mental health of DV victims.