Social Media Markers to Identify Fathers at Risk of Postpartum Depression: A Machine Learning Approach

Abstract

Postpartum depression is a significant mental health issue in mothers and fathers alike; yet at-risk fathers often come to the attention of healthcare professionals late due to low awareness of symptoms and reluctance to seek help. The present study aimed to examine whether passive social media markers are effective for identifying fathers at risk of postpartum depression. We collected 67,796 Reddit posts from 365 fathers, spanning a six-month period around the birth of their child. A list of 'at risk' words was developed in collaboration with a perinatal mental health expert. Postpartum depression was assessed by evaluating the change in fathers' use of words indicating depressive symptomatology after childbirth.Predictive models were developed as a series of Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifiers using behaviour, emotion, linguistic style and discussion topics as features. The performance of these classifiers indicates that fathers at risk of postpartum depression can be predicted from their prepartum data alone.Overall, the best performing model used discussion topic features only with a recall score of 0.82. These findings could assist in the development of support and intervention tools for fathers during the prepartum period, with specific applicability to personalized and preventative support tools for at-risk fathers.

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

“…Of the 54 studies, 5 (9%) studies collected data from Reddit using multiple means. An inventive example of multiple approaches to data collection was noted in the study by Shatte et al [ 67 ], which used Reddit data to examine social media markers of postpartum depression in fathers. Shatte et al [ 67 ] began data collection using the Reddit search function to identify a cohort of 365 Reddit users who made birth announcements in a subreddit for fathers from 2016 to 2018.…”

“…An inventive example of multiple approaches to data collection was noted in the study by Shatte et al [ 67 ], which used Reddit data to examine social media markers of postpartum depression in fathers. Shatte et al [ 67 ] began data collection using the Reddit search function to identify a cohort of 365 Reddit users who made birth announcements in a subreddit for fathers from 2016 to 2018. Then, these authors accessed the Reddit API to collect all posts and comments made by these 365 users in the 6 months before and after each user’s birth announcement, resulting in a data set of 67,796 posts and comments.…”

“…Then, these authors accessed the Reddit API to collect all posts and comments made by these 365 users in the 6 months before and after each user’s birth announcement, resulting in a data set of 67,796 posts and comments. Finally, they analyzed changes in depressive language and discussion topics following each user’s birth announcement [ 67 ]. Combinatory approaches to data collection, such as those deployed by Shatte et al [ 67 ], reflect the unique methodological possibilities afforded by the Reddit platform.…”

“…Finally, they analyzed changes in depressive language and discussion topics following each user’s birth announcement [ 67 ]. Combinatory approaches to data collection, such as those deployed by Shatte et al [ 67 ], reflect the unique methodological possibilities afforded by the Reddit platform.…”

Peer support of fathers on Reddit: Quantifying the stressors, behaviors, and drivers.

“…Online peer support groups may thereby offer fathers a unique environment to share the challenges around the parenthood transition and may be an important complementary support strategy for formal perinatal health services. Reddit may be a particularly useful social media site for fathers to overcome stigma around help-seeking and their caregiving role, given its anonymous nature (Ammari & Schoenebeck, 2015;Shatte, Hutchinson, Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, & Teague, 2020;Teague & Shatte, 2018).…”