Online Social Support for Intimate Partner Violence Victims in China: Quantitative and Automatic Content Analysis

Abstract

To examine the nature and content of messages presented in a popular Chinese online community about intimate partner violence (IPV), this study utilized a two-step analytic approach that combined quantitative content analysis and automatic content analysis. We collected 90,040 messages from the online community’s IPV group. Study 1 analyzed 8,343 randomly selected messages. The findings suggest that social support is commonly presented, while only a few messages expressed blame toward the victims. Study 2 analyzed the whole sample via machine learning technique and further showed that this online community was a space for the victims to obtain informational resources and emotional encouragement.